Full text of "PC Mag"
f
NETWORK EDITION
i
I
hUITORIAL P
LIBRARY ||
TIIK INDKPENDKNT GUIDE TO PERSONAI. COMPUTING
MARCH 25. 1997 V0I..16N0.6
Ten Technologies That Will Change
The Way the World Computes
Plus: Bill Gates and Gordon Moore
Look Beyond the Year 2000
MAGAZINE
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Microsoft' Office 97 is here. And that means there are a bunch of webby things you can do right now using
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recognize it and i'_j v jii :::l v ' A'ti Lh You can find files on your corporate intranet just by typing in a
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Copyrighted material
From the Editor-in-Chief
1
2
0
5
1
S
s
I
Between 1984 and 2001
In this era of constant change, we all tend
to take the technology that we have for
granted. The debates now raging in the
computer industry — about the cost of own-
ership of PCs, the difficulties we face in
configuring our computers, or even how big software
has gotten — all seem important now, but they are really
just blips in the development of PC technology.
These days, we tend to focus on the little differences
among various strategies. We rarely pay attention to just
how far we’ve come since the IBM PC was introduced a
little more than 15 years ago. And even less often do we
think about where all this technology is taking us.
J ust consider what we now take for granted: 1 5 years
ago, word processing was possible, but what you saw on
your monitor was a screen font — completely different
from what you printed. Printing boldfaced and under-
lined text was possible, but italics were unusual and
awkward. Fonts? Well, you could always change the
wheels on your daisy wheel printer. Now, without think-
ing twice, we expect WYSIWYG displays, dozens of
fonts, and the ability to add graphics, print in color, and
spell-check on the fly.
I remember logging on, 15 years ago, to The Source or
to CompuServe — and later to some public BBSes — for
what now seems like an awfully limited amount of mate-
rial at slow speeds and high prices. Now, we have a World
Wide Web that has more material than we can even think
of tracking. People all over the world are joining in, and
our biggest problem isn’t finding data, it’s data overload.
And the next 15 years promise even more. We ex-
pect to see faster processors, bigger hard disks, bigger
and better displays, and lighter portables. Networking
is gradually improving and that, too. will become eas-
ier and faster.
And all this is nothing compared with what will hap-
pen on the software front. People think software today is
too hard, but it’s easier to use than it was, and it will con-
tinue to get easier. People complain that programs are
too big. But when push comes to shove, we all want more
features, not fewer, and we get them.
Most important, software
will be much smarter and
much more customized to our
individual choices. You won’t
notice any special dividing
lines between software and
the information on your local
machine and whatls on the In-
ternet. Voice recognition will
likely become mainstream,
and intelligent agents will be
as everyday as graphical user
interfaces are today.
Let’s be clear. Certainly, there’s a dark side to all of
this technology. Viruses, junk e-mail, online frauds, and
out-and-out break-ins into computers will become
more commonplace. New software makes it very easy
to track what we are doing and where we are going
with our computers, which might be convenient, but
such tracking can also threaten our privacy. The tech-
nology that Big Brother needs is being introduced at a
frightening pace — perhaps faster than our ability to un-
derstand how it should and should not be used.
But there is a bright side as well. We will have more
information than ever before, and we’ll be able to work
with more people in more locations and in better ways.
If we deploy it correctly, 1 believe that PC technology
offers the promises that individuals can take more con-
trol of their individual lives, that different countries and
cultures can better understand each other, and that
every child can get a great education.
So here we stand, between the worries of George
Orwell’s 1984 and the wonders of Arthur C. Clarke’s
2001 . We are witnessing the development of the most
exciting, fastest-changing technology in the history of
the world. Over the next 15 years, we will choose how
we use that technology. In turn, those choices will de-
termine the kind of world we leave to our children.
Each of us will play a part in building this world.
Let’s look back at how far we’ve come and enjoy what
we have now, but let’s also look ahead and understand
the possibilities of the future.
Michael J. Miller
4 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
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Copyrighted material
I March 25, 1997
Volume 16
Number 6
SPECIAL ISSUE
Looking
BY MICHAEL J. MILLER The PC industry has moved ahead far faster than any
other, but sometimes it’s easier to appreciate how far you’ve come if you take the time to
look at where you’ve been. We kick off our special anniversary issue by taking an in-depth
look at the two-decade history of personal computing: the people, the machines, and the
software that have changed our world. It’s been a wild ride so far, and there’s no sign that
this pace is going to let up in the years ahead 108
1961: Introduction of the PC 1 08
1962-1983: The EartvYoars 112
1964-1985: Glimpsing die Future 122
1967-1989: Corporate Computmg-....124
1 990- 1 994: The Windows Era 130
1995-1997: The Online Age 134
Commentaries:
David Bunnell 109
Frank J. Derfler, Jr.... 113
Bill Machrone 123
Jim Seymour.. I2S
John C. Dvorak 131
DonWiilmon 135
Personal Computing Pioneers 138
UP FRONT
ONLINE
What’s New
Online
Personal Pages
Join us at WWW
.pcmag.com for
more coverage of
g FCMagaime's anniversary, and
I read extended versions of editor-
^ in-chief Michael J. Miller's
I interviews with Microsoft CEO
I Bill Gates and Intel cofounder
g Gordon Moore. Also online: the
I new and improved IntemetUser.
From the Eifitor-in-Chief .. .4
Pipeline 9
Letters .21
Trends js
►The upcoming Entertainment
97 PC gains speed
►Electronic gadgets: Hot prod*
ucts down the pike
► Inside PC Labs
►What's NeXT for Apple? Is
this the right OS choice?
First Ljooks
► Going with the flow: Four
diagramming programs
►Three snapshot scanners
►Adobe Acrobat 3.0
►Quick View Plus 4.0
►Net.Jet 1.11
4s Second Looks si
► Panasonic CF-25
► PowerToys for Windows CE
► Bug briefs
COLUMNISTS
JAKE KIRCHNER 30
BILL MACHRONE 85
JOHN C. DVORAK 87
INSIDE TRACK 89
JIM SEYMOUR 93
mi 1 Hnwapn US
6 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
NETWORK EDITION
PC TECH
^\l
Learning Visual C++, Part 4.
Power Programming 333
A bare*bones client shows how
to develop telnet applications.
Internet Idols 349
Alternatives for adding inter-
active power to your Web site.
utilities 3ss
Design a replacement for the
Windows 95 animated logo.
PC SOLUTIONS
User-to-User 36i
Ask Our Advisors 370
► Hardware
► Operating Environments
►Word Processing
►Spreadsheets
► Databases
► Graphics
AFTER WORDS
After Hours 449
Abort, Retry, Fall? 470
Follows page 96
Management and
Servi^ Future
Strategies nei
Here are ten IS strategies that
will help you prepare your
network for the demands of
tomorrow.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
PC Direct 361
PC Magazine Marketplace 409
Premier 409
Classified 430
BusinessCard .446
First Looks neii
► Axis NetEve 200
► NetworkEye/270
► SofTrack for NT
► WebTerm
► Symplex RO-1 Gold
Multiple Access ne23
Get Rich Before 2007
Reader Service Card 419
Adverdsers' Index: Companies 465
Advertisers' Index: Products 466
Coming Up 468
Editorial Product Index 469
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 7
msi:
Business Computers
.-..148
Agent Software
190
Home Computers
.....158
Distributed Computing 198
Microprocessors
—188
User Interfaces
.—.206
Display Toclinology.
Mass Storage
_-176
—181
Business Networking-
Home Connectivity
214
220
TEN KEY TECHNOLOGIES
Looking Forward
BY BILL HOWARD
No matter how fast the tech-
nology of personal computing
moves ahead, we always want
more: more speed, faster
delivery, greater ease of use,
more functions and power.
Fortunately, there continue to
be significant advances in the
key hardware, software, and
networking technologies that
drive the PC industry. We take
a look at the current prod-
ucts — for the home and for
business — that embody these
developing technologies to
give you an idea of where the
course of personal computing
will take us through the year
2000 and beyond. Some tech-
nologies that are now key to
the PC will fade over time.
Others are only now beginning
to show the promise of having
a significant effect. But all of
these products have the poten-
tial to reshape the way we live
in the coming years. At the
very least they’ll make your
computer run faster and let you
hold more information in ever-
smaller boxes 142
BILL GATES AND GORDON MOORE
Looking Beyond
For more than two decades. Bill
Gates, chairman and CEO of
Microsoft, and Gordon Moore,
chairman emeritus of Intel, have
been the driving forces behind the
companies that are leading per-
sonal computing into the
future. Both are technolo-
gists with a visionary
bent. Here, in exclusive
interviews with PC
Magazine, they reflect
on the industry's
growth. More important,
they look to the ^ture and
discuss persona] computing in
the next millennium 229
THE FUTURE OF PROGRAMMING
The More Thii^ Change
EDITED BY SHARON TERDEMAN
Programming continues to
evolve rapidly. And although
operating
ronments, lan-
guages, and
programming
methods are
continuing to
improve, other
factors remain
constant: the need
for cross-platform compati-
bility, the search for new and
better languages, and the
struggle to produce user-
friendly software. Here, to see
what the future holds for the
art of programming,
we asked nine ac-
las Boling, Alan
Cooper, James
Gosling, John
Lam, Gordon
Letwin, Charles Pet-
zold. Matt Pietrek, Jeff Prosise,
and Neil J. Rubenking — to
give us their views 243
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CIRCLE 292 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCMAQ.COM/ProductUnk
DISPATCHES FROM THE WORLD OF COMPUTING
Pipeline
15 Years of Technology
Join us online as we celebrate PC Magazine’s
fifteenth anniversary. Take an interactive tour
of the technologies that excited us yesterday and the technolo-
gies that will excite us tomorrow, read the entire transcripts of
editor-in-chief Michael J. Miller’s interviews with Microsoft
CEO Bill Gates and Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, and remi-
nisce about your first PC in our discussion forum. How clunky
was it? How much did you pay for it?
INTERNETUSER— BETTER TRAN EVER We’ve overhauled our
popular IntemetUser section to make it easier for you to access
hundreds of Internet-related product reviews, www.inlernetuser
.com will take you straight there.
ALSO ON THE VVER. Stop by every day at our NewsWatch page to
read up on the latest Trends and news analyses. And don’t
forget to check out our daily News.Scan summary of computer
news from the mainstream press and an up-to-the-minute feed
from the ZDNet News Wire.
Blast-Off!
T he promise of worldwide
wireless communication for
mobile phones and pagers
will become a reality when the
long-awaited Iridium project —
a worldwide wireless service for
voice, data, fax, and paging —
begins commercial operation
next year. The launch of the first
three satellites was scheduled
for January but has been de-
layed until later this spring.
Iridium will track the
location of sub-
scribers' phones and
allow communica-
tion between any
two points in the
world. The hand-
held phones will con-
nect to notebooks, per-
sonal digital assistants, and
palmtops.
Iridium is owned by an inter-
national consortium of 17 in-
vestor organizations that have
raised more then $2.6 billion to
fund the project. Motorola is the
primary contractor.
Since the system is narrow-
band, however, it’s too slow for
Web access. That’s why Micro-
soft CEO Bill Gates and tele-
communications pioneer Craig
McCaw have big hopes for their
Teledesic Network, a broad-
band mobile communications
network. Teledesic, which is
lagging behind Iridium’s deploy-
ment schedule, relies on a con-
stellation of hundreds of low
Earth-orbit satellites. While
Iridium is meant for short mes-
saging, Teledesic is designed for
“fiberlike” wireless
telecommunica-
tions services,
including interac-
tive Internet access,
voice, data, and
videoconferencing.
London-based
market research firm
Ovum predicts that the
number of subscribers
who will use hand-held
devices to access satellite-based
voice and data services will
skyrocket from 130,000 in 1998
to 8 million in 2002. Ovum
expects the worldwide market to
grow to $8.5 billion a year, with
the Asia/Pacific region account-
ing for 40 percent of worldwide
revenue, followed by the Ameri-
cas with 27 percent, and Western
Europe with 13 percent.
Cyber-Kermit
A s if barnstorming
holiday sales of
Tickle Me Elmo
dolls weren’t
enough exposure
for the Muppets,
The Microsoft
Network has
announced an
exclusive rela-
tionship with Jim
Henson Productions to develop
interactive online programming
on MSN featuring the Muppets.
The three-year development
calls for nine
joint projects.
Kermit the Frog
has already been
spotted hover-
ing over a PC con-
nected to MSN. The
Muppets have been
featured in several
popular CD-ROM
titles and will now
Junction as Microsoft
mascots online.
Next-Century Notebooks
T he notebook of choice in
the year 2(XX) will come
stocked with a far bigger hard
disk and far more memory
than today’s notebook, at
little added cost, according
to data compiled by NEC’s
Portable Systems Division.
The company foresees the
average 2.5-inch notebook
hard disk hitting 4GB by 1998
and over 6GB (for 17-mm hard
disks) by the year 2000.
RAM size is also on the
upswing, according to NEC’s
forecasts. The greatest demand
now is for 16MB of RAM, but
by 1999 64MB will take its
place, with the year 2000 seeing
a flood of demand for 256MB
of RAM in notebooks.
NC: What Mind Share?
Not lamiliar with NCs
Familiar with NCs; no plans
to adopt in the next 12 months
Undecided, but evaluating NCs
Evaluating NCs, with plans to
install within the next 12 months ,
Source Computer Intelligence
42%
51%
A survey of 319 corporate decision-
makers shows that computer
manufacturers have a lot of work ahead
of them to convirKe companies of the
merits of network computer devices
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 9
CcpyriQhtcJ
Digital Cameras on a Budget
P riced at thousands of dollars
a pop, high-quality digital
cameras are too expensive for
most amateur photographers.
But now, developers are work-
ing on a clever new technology
that could bring down the cost
by the end of the year.
The cost of
making CCDs —
or charge-coupled
devices, the
photosensitive
semiconductor
chips that take
the place of film
in capturing im-
ages — is the major
contributor to hefty
prices. Manufactur-
ers are turning to complementary
metal-oxide semiconductor
(CMOS) photodiodes, which are
much easier and far less expen-
sive to produce than CCDs.
Companies are concocting
ingenious workarounds that
make CMOS image sensors
practical for lower-priced
digital cameras. To increase
light sensitivity, manufacturers
are placing microlenses in front
of each pixel, and to improve
dynamic range, they are in-
creasing the number of bits per
color channel from 8 to 10.
One company, Sound Vision,
has virtually elim-
inated “noise”
from its camera’s
images. The
SoundVision
camera takes two
pictures when you
press the button.
The first exposure
captures an elec-
tronic image of
the subject. Once
the shutter closes, the camera
takes a second exposure,
recording noise as points of light
in the dark register. The two
images are instantly compared
and the noise subtracted.
The 1 ,000- by 800-pixeI cam-
era will have an expected street
price of around $350.
Digital workarounds: Two
exposures are better than one.
Memory^
Futures ^
P C designers
have known
for some time
that existing
memory archi-
tectures will soon be too slow to
keep up with microprocessor
speeds. Now that Intel has made
a deal to license memory designs
from Rambus, a developer of a
super-high-speed memory inter-
face technology, Intel has effec-
tively anointed Rambus technol-
ogy as the main memory
architecture of the future.
Together, Intel and Rambus
plan to design the next genera-
tion of Rambus dynamic mem-
ory, called nDRAM, which
could reach 1.6 GBps by 1999.
Founded in 1990, Rambus has
received praise for its
600-MBpsDRAM
interface, RDRAM,
which is designed to run
ten times as fast as con-
ventional DRAM inter-
faces. But the company has
won few actual contracts
for the product.
Last year, Rambus had its first
big break with the RISC-based
game machine Nintendo 64,
which posted excellent holiday
sales. Rambus has also made
great strides to minimize a weak-
ness, high latency prior to the
initial transfer of data.
According to industry news-
letter Microprocessor Report,
Intel’s upxx)ming P7 processor
(code-named Merced) will have
a voracious appetite for memory.
Intel expects Merced to be ready
in about a year and nDRAM to
be mainstream by 1999.
I This issue’s contributors: Andrew Boscardin, Daniel Grotta, Sally
i Wiener Grotta, Angela Hickman, Carol Levin, Melissa J. Perenson,
^ Sebastian Rupley, Larry Seltzer, and Don Willmott.
10 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Octo-Pro
T he four-processor Pentium
Pro system is already losing
its cachet. Using new chip sets
from Corollary and NCR, eight-
processor Pentium Pro servers
should be prevalent by midyear.
The Intel Pentium Pro offers
built-in SMP (symmetric multi-
processing) capabilities, but it
doesn’t inherently support
configurations of more than
four processors. Thus, while
so-called quad-P6 servers have
been industry commonplaces,
six- and eight-way Pentium Pro
machines have been industry
quandaries.
Corollary has broken the
four-way Pentium Pro barrier
with Profusion, an eight-chip
architecture that interconnects
two quad-processor buses with-
out inserting a third bus in be-
tween. Profusion should debut
this summer in systems from
Hitachi and Samsung.
NCR’s competing OctoScale
architecture is scheduled to
arrive in March via the compa-
ny’s WorldMark 4300 servers.
OctoScale uses an additional bus
to join two Intel quad-Pentium
Pro boards.
Trek” 's valuable
online property.
Web Turf Wars
H ollywood studios — including
Disney, Twentieth Century
Fox, and Warner Bros. — are a
few of the many groups that
have been actively protecting
the use of their copyrighted
material in the online world.
Lately, Viacom, the
parent company of
Paramount Pic-
tures, has been
the most litigious.
In a recent crack-
down on un-
authorized “Star
Trek” Web sites,
Viacom issued
cease-and-
desist letters to
several dozen
sites, noting that the posting of
copyrighted material, such as
images, sound and video clips,
and even detailed episode sum-
maries, is unacceptable and,
presumably, grounds for Viacom
to intervene. The resulting uproar
among the online fan community
prompted Paramount, which has
an official “Star Trek” outpost on
The Microsoft Network, to plan a
resp>onse that would appear at
www.paramounLcom.
While Viacom is adamant
about its case, middle-ground
solutions can be found else-
where. For example, in the
case of the television series
“Babylon 5,” Warner Bros, has
agreed not to prosecute fan sites,
provided that the proper copy-
right information is appended to
the material displayed therein.
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PRINTED IN THE U.SA
14 W MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
A Crucial Memory Upgrade
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Copyrighted
Letters
DATA TO GO
I especially enjoyed the two pullout sections
you included in the issue of December 3, 1996
(“The Netsearcher’s Ultimate Cheat Sheet”
and “PC Buyers’ Guide”). Providing a great
deal of information in a format that can be
detached neatly without carving up the maga-
zine is a nice touch. 1 put these in my desk
reference binder for quick access. I would
welcome several of them a month on various
subjects.
TimTarr
Clarion, Pennsylvania
Your cheat sheet is a great resource to keep
handy on my desk. I only wish that the pullout
was actually easy to remove from the maga-
zine. When I then tried to pull it out, I started
to tear the page. I finally used a pocketknife to
cut the page.
AdamGrais
via the Internet
Thank you for this wonderful guide. Al-
though the December 3 issue came out after
we took our ninth graders through a class on
the Internet, I realized this sheet would have
been a great educational asset.
Susan Wilmes
via the Internet
Is there any chance that “The Netsearcher’s
Ultimate Cheat Sheet” would be posted on
your Web site, or made downloadable, so we
might bookmark it?
Tom Davis
via the Internet
'‘The Netsearcher’s Ultimate Cheat Sheet” is
available at our Web site at www.pcmag.com/
iu/srchsiie/_open.htm. — Ed.
PALMTOP TALK
In your otherwise informative article “Win-
dows in Your Palm” (First Looks, January 7,
1997) on how Windows CE is going to rescue
the “sleepy'* and “moribund” PDA market,
you ignore the U.S. Robotics Pilot. This thing
has taken over the PDA market by storm. I
see Pilots everywhere. On more than one oc-
casion, I've walked into someone’s office,
seen a Pilot, taken mine from my pocket, and
used it as an ice-breaker. I’ve even joined in
spontaneous Pilot conversations while riding
in elevators with total strangers.
Jeff Goodman
via the Internet
When will the makers of hand-held personal
computers (HPCs) figure out the obvious?
No matter how many great features they put
into their palmtop P^ (such as word proces-
The Netsearchers
Ultimate Cheat Sheet is a
great resource.
sors, spreadsheet, Web browsers, and so on),
these features are not usable without an easi-
er way to type.
Restricting users to entering data on a desk-
top PC, then downloading it to the HPC is
great while you are in the office, but what
about when you are at home or on the road? It
seems to me that a simple solution would be an
optional minikeyboard. With a real keyboard,
you could easily create reports, type memos,
letters, and notes, then connect the HPC to a
phone line and fax, or e-mail the data.
Steve Pemberton
Anaheim, California
In “Windows in Your Palm,” the author
states that “The first Windows CE palmtops
will support IrDA infrared wireless printing.”
when in fact none of them do. The IrDA port
is for PDA-to-PDA communications only.
Dennis Lebman
via the Internet
GOING ALL-OUT
Thanks to your review of the Web search en-
gines (“All-Out Search,” December 3, 1996).
I’m now able to find sites without spending
hours searching for them. As usual, the article
was to the point, extremely helpful, and not
too technical.
Rafi Khouri
via the Internet
I enjoyed your article about Web search sites.
It was very informative, but there was at least
one question it didn’t answer What is the mo-
tivation for search site developers to develop.
maintain, and improve these sites? 1 don’t see
the economic incentive for them.
Richard W. Gungel
Downers Grove, Illinois
I am a proponent of fewer acronyms and ab-
breviations to complicate my life, rather than
more. But as I prepare to teach a class in how
to do research on the Internet, I find the need
to constantly use the abbreviation www for
the World Wide Web. For me, pronouncing
this is a tongue twister. And when I say it fast,
I get accused of slurring my speech. You
know where that can lead you in corporate
America. Therefore, I propose that we find a
quicker and easier way to communicate the
WWW portion of an Internet URL.
Greg Perlstein
via the Internet
HOW COULD YOU?
1 have been looking for a new video board for
my machine and was glad to see the article
“3-D For Free” in the PC Magazine issue of
December 3, 1996. But how can you give the
Editors’ Choice to the Intergraph Reactor,
the only board in the story to drop video
frames? What good are 3-D graphics for an
application if a simple movie file can’t be
played correctly?
Karl Lodwick
via the Internet
When we weighed all the factors, the Inter-
graph Reactor was the best all-around prod-
uct, despite its low video score. Our tests re-
ported a high number of dropped frames for
this board, but when the video segments were
played and subjectively analyzed, they were
quite viewable. We believe that the high num-
ber of dropped frames was due to a known
anomaly of the MCI interface in Windows 95;
this problem has been fixed in the OEM Ser-
vice Release 2. — Ed.
POINTING OUT PBOILEMS
When PointCast works, it is a neat product, al-
lowing the user to snag information and news
without having to track it down. (“Thirteenth
Annual Technical Excellence Awards,” De-
cember 17, 1996). However, PointCast has
only wreaked havoc on my PC. When I first
downloaded it, PointCast would not install.
Then after my third download attempt, it did
in fact install, but then crashed my PC while in
the midst of downloading the first batch of in-
formation, taking my modem along with it.
Mary Beth Grant
Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
HOME ISDN SURVIVOIS
I have read all the articles on the difficulty and
complexity of hooking up an ISDN line, in-
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 21
Copyrighted material
THE GREAT INVISIBLE GUIDING
mmm
LISM HAS JUST
THE INTERNET
UPSIDE THE HEAD NOW WHAT?
NO MORE HYPE. No more jargon. No more paradigm shifts, okay? Everybody agrees the
Web has the potential to be a monumental economic force. But from a capitalist point of
view, the Internet has had about as much Impact as the two-dollar bill. Why? For one thing,
security Is lousy. For another, building Interactive websites that are linked to corporate
databases (which is to say, useful Information) takes forever. For still another, keeping
those websites updated with timely Information costs a fortune.
LOTUS DOMINO'* FIXES AIL THIS. Lotus Domino Is web server software based on
Lotus Notes* technology. It makes powerful. Interactive websites easier to build. It lets
people edit and manage the content on those websites using ordinary web browsers - which
means the people who have the information people need can make it available simply by
changing It themselves (this Is the way the Web should work, but until now. It hasn't).
It not only lets you control who gets Into your system but also what they can see, and what
changes they can make. So you can let your customers see one thing, and your management
another. You can let your finance department make changes to information your European
sales offices can only see.
wo. lotus Domino Is not about
cIrculatinWwoKs OHiTtll^e origins
ng more
stupid Stull on the Web.
This makes Domino a powerful tool for creating solutions that are customized to the needs
of your business. To let employees, managers, contractors and suppliers all work
together over the Web. To help customers find the answers they need. To turn the
Web from a digital warehouse for stale jokes and silly photographs Into a tool that businesses
can use to actually get things done. Log in. Find out. www.lotus.com/worktheweb
POW£ft£p.«V
ira
cisisiers aid eipliyees.
Lotus
Wforlding Together
Copyrightetj material
Letters
CORRECTIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS
In the Hardware section of PC Solutions (Ask Our Advisors, "L2 Cache Specifications," page 264) in the
December 17. 1996, issue, the correct system clock speed for the Intel Pentium 1(X3 is 66 MHz, notthe 60
MHz, which was stated.
In the list of people responsible for Fractal Design Expression, a finalist in the Graphics Software cate-
gory of the 'iliirteenth Annual Technical ExcellenceAwards" (December 17. 1996), a developer's name
was misspelled. It should be "Sai-leung Siu," not"Sai-leung Su."
eluding the one in the PC Magazine issue of
January 7, 1997 (Trends, “Way Fast Phone
Lines"). So with great trepidation, I called
GTE, and to my amazement, they had heard
of ISDN, and we scheduled a date in about a
week for installation. The day dawned, the
serviceman showed up, and my cold sweats
began. To my amazement, it was all set up and
working in less than 20 minutes. He even gave
me a few very helpful pointers on my modem
hookup.
Joanne White
Redmond, Washington
I have to take issue with the views expressed
in the article “Way Fast Phone Lines.” I didn't
have any problems with my Pacific Bell ISDN
setup. Once the line was installed, 1 wired up
an RJ-45 jack and mounted it behind my desk,
plugged in the Sportster ISDN and modem,
configured Windows NT’s Remote Access
Server, keyed in the details of the setup, and I
was surfing the Internet at 128 kilobytes per
second in less than an hour. I haven't had a
single problem in two months. Nothing could
be simpler.
Derick Qua-Gonzalez
West Hollywood, California
SCANNING THE CATEGORIES
After glancing at your article “The Fifty Best
Products of 19%” (January 7, 1997), I was
shocked to see that there wasn't a category for
scanners. The task to come up with a range of
categories to cover the interests of your read-
ers must be daunting, but I think you dropped
the ball by not including a scanner category.
James E. Moore
Greensboro, North Carolina
HOW TO CONTACT US--i
I
We welcome your comments and |
suggestions. Please send Letters to |
the Editor via t '
I
E^IAIL pcmag@zd.com '
FAX 212-503-5799 * ^
MAIL Letters, PC Magazine, One I
Park Ave., New York, NY 10016-5802 1
COMPUSERVE To reach individual |
editors as listed on ZD Net, type |
GO PCMSTAFF. |
[All letters become the property of PC
\Magazine and are subject to editing.
j We regret that we cannot answer let-
ters individually. To send
submissions for PC
Solutions, please see the
sidebar "How to Contact
Us" on the last page of
that column.
L _ . - . ^
24 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?
You have excellent columnists with fine re-
ports on the latest happenings in the world of
computers. But I use DOS and Windows 3.1,
and your coverage of these two areas is limit-
ed to two or three pages of the “User-to-
User” column. It is my understanding that
many businesses continue to use Windows
3.1, and that there are millions of PC home
users and hobbyists who do not use Windov^^
95. Your magazine is almost completely
dedicated to that operating system, but we
non-Windows 95 users still need help.
Harold Simon
Ventura, California
I'd like to see a review of Linux running on a
PC. This a real 32-bit multitasking/multiuser
operating system. It doesn’t have many of the
flaws that DOS and Windows 95 have, and
there are several programming tools and edi-
tors for this platform that won't cost $100
apiece. Admittedly, even a few years ago, this
OS was only for hackers. But now I’d say it’s
ready for prime time.
Lisa Chiang
via the Internet
GETTING THE WORD OUT
I enjoyed reading Bill Machrone's article on
Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang
(“Can You Help the Gang?", December 17.
1996). Being a self-taught computer profes-
sional, I have turned to PC Magazine count-
less times to inform and educate myself
about technology. I guess I've learned quite
a bit, because I now host a weekly radio
show on a major AM station in Atlanta an-
swering other people’s technology-related
questions. I get a number of calls from my
listeners asking what they can do with their
older computer equipment, as they move up
to newer systems. Thanks to Machrone’s ar-
ticle, I now have one more place to which I
can guide people.
Mike Gentry
Atlanta, Georgia
AD PANDEMONIUM
I’m certainly not what you would call a prude,
but I find Data Translation’s ad in PC Maga-
zine (January 7, 1997) for Broadway offensive
in a magazine that is know to be read by all
age groups.
Art Garland
via the Internet
If this were Playboy magazine, then this type
of ad would be expected. But in a profession-
al resource such as PC Magazine, it is com-
pletely inappropriate.
Mark Jameson
via the Internet
Data TranskiHoni adjbr
Brvadway:bitoffmsivef
The headline “Teach them how to screw” is
blatantly offensive. I recognize that Data
Translation is just trying to clever, but this
ad is gross.
Jim Loughlin
Tulsa, Oklahoma
A Ithough the editors do not control the adver-
tising content of VC Magazine, we decided to
ask the advertiser, Data Translation, Marl-
boro, Massachiissets, for a response to these
letters. Company president Fred Molinari told
us, in part: “/ can’t remember the last time
someone took offense with (or even bothered
to write in about) any ad in PC Magazine.
Finding sexual innuendoes in words such as
penetrating and screwdriver is indicative of a
prudish mentality. What’s next? White pages
with AD-PG orAD-R warning parents of up-
coming ads? Standing out among numerous
products while educating potential customers
are some of the main goals of advertising. Re-
sponse to our ad has been overwhelming, and
sales have increased substantially. ” — Ed.
Copyrighted maienai
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As 17” becomes the standard for your multiple
applications, and applications become more media-
intensive, don't just settle for a bigger system. Acquire
a better one. A media-ready Nokia 44 7X.
These are the first monitors in the world
to achieve the new VESA standards
for display clarity. Their 15.7"
viewing area boasts an aperture
grill of .25 mm, and refresh rates as lofty as 150 Hz
for virtually frozen screens. They are even capable
of the ultimate 1600 x 1200 resolution. In other
words, these screens are not just larger, they are
clearer — which translates directly to improved
working conditions and user-sensitivity. You'll also
be relieved to know these ore the first monitors to
be TCO'95 certified for greatly reduced screen
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emissions. This reaffirms Nokio's leadership in the
science it pioneered.
The media-ready series does more than extend
Nokia s most award-winning model (7 industry "Bests"
so far]. It literally shouts innovation. Dual powered
stereo speakers in front combine with a subwoofer in
the swivel/tilt base to shape audio at the intimate
volumes most suitable for working close to a monitor.
447XOVC — Adds to X series Features
with built-in color video camera
This gives you the kind of audio system that multimedia
and communications applications
require, without a nest of wires
and speakers fighting for the
precious real estate around
your computer.
The audio copabilities of
the media-ready series extend
to the built-in microphone set
in the top of the bezel (at
ideal voice height). This feature
completes the requisites for computer telephony. The
447Xavc model even houses the worlds first inboard
color video camera for video-capture and conferenc-
ing. Truly, the media-ready series enables the complete
convergence of computing and communications.
Of course, each of these systems comes with full
digital controls and on-screen menu-driven adjustments
(which Nokia also pioneered). Yet their pricing is
remarkably competitive. All of which makes the new
447X series o necessity for anyone making full use
of their computer. After all, the best way to meet the
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lUUSTRATIOM BY GAAV2AMCKICK
TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY SHAPING THE PERSONAL COMPUTER MARKET
Trends
Microsoft Family Room
The upcoming Entertainment 97 PC gathers hardware partners.
M icrosoft is already entrenched in your
office and your den, and now the com-
pany wants to control your family
room as well. Microsoft, joined by a
host of hardware vendors and entertainment
companies, recently announced new compo-
nents for Windows that will flesh out the so-
called Entertainment 97 PC specification. The
announcement may represent a big step to-
ward convergence between consumer elec-
tronics and PCs.
The first Entertainment PCs. from Com-
paq. IBM, Micron, and Toshiba, will ship late
this summer with a big push for the 1997 holi-
day season.
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT HUB
Designed to put the full intelligence of a Pen-
tium computer running Windows at the hub
of a family entertainment center, the Enter-
tainment 97 PC calls for a display of 27 inches
or larger to provide TV broadcasts via one of
three routes: a DirecTV digital satellite sys-
tem (DSS), cable, or an ordinary analog con-
nection. “The Internet is great for informa-
tion. but it is not an entertainment medium,”
says Ed Hughuez, DirecTV’s vice president
for new media. “The DSS PC will focus on the
full complement of entertainment services,
28 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
from real-time tickers to enhanced television
and everything in between.”
Several hardware companies, including ATI
Technologies and Tseng Laboratories, will
provide graphics hardware for cable and ana-
log connections for both new Entertainment
PO and existing PCs. “The Entertainment PC
initiative will allow ATI. through its All-In-
Wonder card, to provide the
missing link that connects your
current PC to traditional enter-
tainment technology.” explains
David Jones, a group product
manager at ATI. Since VGA
displays are intrinsically digital,
the PC can make the transition
to digital TV simply with the
addition of a video card.
Together with large-screen
video, the specification for the
Entertainment 97 PC puts into
play a number of new tech-
nologies: DVD-ROM to show
movies and play audio CDs;
USB and FireWire ports to
connect peripherals, such as
camcorders and VCRs; wireless
keyboards; and TV tuners.
An important part of the pic-
ture is Microsoft’s Advanced Configuration
and Power Interface (ACPI), which will en-
able the computer to stay in a low power state
all the time, turn on instantly without a lengthy
reboot, and continually receive data over the
video channel.
The Microsoft announcement details two
new pieces of Windows specifically aimed at
Entertainment 97 PCs and PCs with replace-
ment video cards for TV capabilities. Broad-
cast Services for Windows (BSW) can collect
video feeds of information, such as program-
ming guides, stock quotes, Web pages, and
encrypted information, while the PC is in low
power mode, as well as cache the data to the
hard disk.
At the user interface level are a set of ap-
plications that include an ActiveX control
to display TV, an Electronic Programming
Guide (EPG), and an Entertainment Center
application.
PCs with standard analog connections
will be able to receive data over the verti-
cal blanking interval (VBI) — transmissions
during the period when the TV gun is mov-
ing from the lower right of the screen to the
upper left. VBI transfers at a rate of about
9,600 bits per second — about 100MB of data
a day. DirecTV, which transmits a separate
channel for data, allows up to 30-Mbps trans-
mission speeds.
HTML-ENHANCED TV
Microsoft is also developing interfaces to TV
viewing itself and is defining a new standard
database for the EPG to which other software
developers can add. With the intelligence of a
Windows PC at the ready, the EPG
can provide one-click setup of VCR
programming and the control of child
viewing based on ratings (part of the
EPG database) without the need for
a V-chip lo restrict programs.
The video signal will be displayed in
an ActiveX control normally running
inside Microsoft Internet Explorer, a
setup that lets you watch a cooking
show, for instance, and surf to a recipe
site on the Web. Among the content
partners Microsoft has announced
are Big Ticket, Ministry of Film, News
Digital Sys, Rysher Entertainment,
and the SciFi Channel.
The convergence of computers
and home entertainment has been
predicted for some time now. Micro-
soft is placing a big bet that that time
has come . — Barry Simon
SUBFY0UR1V:Warc^(i
sports show and jump
to a Web site for stats.
Copyrighted material
Gadgets Galore
Electronics show highlights hot products^
Mi
I ovies, music, and remote control. Amer-
icans’ thirst for consumer electronics
products reached a record high last
year: According to the Consumer Electronics
Manufacturers’ Association, sales were up
4 percent over the previous year, and eager
shoppers laid out $69.5 billion on electronic
gadgets, including $29.1 billion on home in-
formation paraphernalia and $15 billion for
video products.
The recent Winter Consumer Electronics
Show highlighted some hot products that
will hit the store shelves this year. Digi-
tal versatile disk (DVD) players top the
list. Panasonic, Philips/Magnavox, Pioneer,
RCA. Sony. Toshiba, Yamaha, and Zenith
Electronics all expect to start shipping
DVD players in March at prices ranging
from $500 to $1,000. DVD players for
PCs will be available on systems in
second half
I of year
I will about
$5(M) more than
a PC equipped
with a CD-ROM
player.
Film studios expect to
master dozens of titles by
the time the players ship
and to deliver more than 100
titles in time for the 1997
holiday season. So far, only
an eclectic collection that in-
cludes Tin Cup and Twister
is available.
Manufacturers are also
gearing up to produce elec-
tronic gadgets for CEBus, the
decade-old technology that
turns your PC into a remote-
control center for the con-
sumer appliances, security systems, and climate
controls throughout your house. CEBus, which
works from a PC, over an AC line, or via radio
frequency, is now part of an umbrella stan-
dard know as Home Plug ’n’ Play. Honeywell
and Thomson Consumer Electronics promise
working CEBus devices shortly.
Meanwhile, Yamaha is readying its pro-
totype of a home music system that uses
the IEEE 1394 (FireWire) serial bus and is
based on the mLAN audio and music proto-
col. The system is designed to digitize and
transmit music (from up to 50 CDs at once)
around the house over FireWire cables. A PC
situated next to the main music center lets you
click on a music source on-screen, then drag it
to a room and adjust the volume.
— Bill Howard
15 Years of PC Benchmark Tests
HVHR Y ()Nrt£ IN A WHlLIi. READERS ASK VS.
“Aren’t the current computers fast
enough?” Considering the over 10 million
ct>pies of ZD benchmark tests we’ve dis-
tributed. we at PC' Magazine Labs would
have to answer that computers w ill never lx;
fast enough.
Each incremental improvement in per-
formance allows new possibilities — speech
recognition, video and animation, more-
complex image manipulation and data
analysis — and tools that make computers a
more indispensable part of our lives.
Benchmark tests are
at the heart of what we
do at PC Muf^azine.
And in celebration of
our fifteenth anniver-
sary. we’d like to priv
\ide a brief historical
account of PC' bench-
mark tests at PC ’ Labs.
CLONE CLAIMS
Back in early 19H4.il
beaime apparent to
then-editor-in-chief Bill Machrone (cur-
rently vice president of technology for Ziff-
Davis) that our readers needed an objec-
tive way to explore and validate the price/
performance gains PC' clone makers were
claiming over IBM’s main.siream PC' and
XT offerings. Using Car and Dm'crmaga-
zine as a model. Bill and technical assistant
Michael O'Cone de\ ised a computer equiv-
alent to the 0- to 6()-mph acceleration te.st.
and our first set of PC perfomumce and
compatibility tests was bom. The tests
debuted in our April 3. 1 984. issue. "The
IBM Compatible Universe.”
For the first performance lest, we mea-
sured the time a PC' needed to write 20 1 K
bhK'ks to disk and then read them back, to
calculate all the prime numbers between
1 and 50. and to load WordStar. Compati-
bility tests included running the official
IBM PC' Diagnostics.
OFFICIAL STATUS
By mid-1985, the benchmark tests
were updated and officially named the
PC' Magazine Labs Laboratory Bench-
mark Series. These tests included 13
modules, of w hich 5 were used to
benchmark-test PCs. I he PC' modules
included disk read/w rile tests of both
sequential and random data, prime-
number determination, assemblies, com-
piles. and links.
In 1986. PC' Labs overhauled the bench-
mark tests to include floating-point opera-
tions. 8088 and 286 instruction mixes, and
RAM measurements. We revised the
benchmark tests yet again in 1987 to in-
clude 386 instruction mixes and BIOS disk-
sock and DC3S disk-
access tests. Release
4.0 of the benchmark
tests, unveiled in 1988.
added low-level graph-
ics tests, with direcl-lo-
screen memi>r\ writes,
and video BIOS tests,
with and without
scrolling. In 1989.
we added DOS file-
access tests as well
as expanded and
extended memors' tests. I he first release
of WinBench (K'curred in 1990.
ENTER ZDBOP
Relea.se 6.0 shipped in fX'tober 1991 w ith an
improved iLser interface and an assortment
of database features that allowed the com-
parison of multiple graphical systems. We
included a 486 instruction mix and a second
release of WinBench on the same disk.
In 1992. the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Oper-
ation (ZDBOp) i(H)k over the design and
execution of our tests and embarked on a
coasiderable overhaul of the CPU instruc-
tion mixes, using volumes of instruction
profiling data gathered from AMD. C yrix.
and Intel. ZDBOp rclea.sed the first version
of the benchmark te.st suite ZD Winstone at
the Fall Comdex trade show in 1993. then
substantially reworked it: C'PU tests were
alst) improved yet again. Since then, our
benchmark tests have taken on a profes-
sional shine and continue to improve every'
year. 'Ilie benchmark te.st challenge is enor-
mous. but we plan to be here to help you
througli the next 15 years . — Nick Slam
IN THE BEGINNING: Early PC Lab.s staffers
developed the benchmark-testing process.
p
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 29
Trends
WhafsNeXT?
CEO Amelio outlines Apple’s upcoming OS.
A pple CEO Gil Amelio’s recent defense of
his company's industry position has been
undermined by larger-than-expected fi-
nancial losses, but Apple's acquisition of NeXT
Software is raising interesting possibilities.
Apple's brand-new, high-end operating sys-
tem, Rhapsody, is on its way.
The company's fortunes depend heavily on
creating Internet- and intranet-smart operating
systems and applications. Both Eric Schmidt
of Sun Microsystems and Jim Barksdale of
Netscape Communications have stressed the
rapidly growing revenue potential of Internet
products as bright spots for Apple. Barksdale
says Apple's opportunities could arise from the
growth of Internet-centric products, which, ac-
cording to Forrester Research analysts, will
constitute a $200 billion industry by the year
2000. Adds Schmidt, “Apple is a company that
gels it about networks and the network oppor-
tunity. The Internet and Java are too big for
one player or only a few players to dominate.”
Many analysts have said that $400 million for
NeXT Software was loo high a price to pay, but
Amelio maintains he bought NeXTs operating
system technology because it is the “ideal com-
plement to Apple’s software.” Amelio
says that the next-generation Apple
operating system, based on
NeXT, will be optimized to
run on PowerMac hardware
and will be customized for
Sun Microsystems’ Java.
Amelio stresses that Ap-
ple's new operating system
will emphasize NeCT technol-
ogy rather than just employ bits
and pieces along with Apple's
Copland technology. The
upcoming operating system,
called Rhapsody, will be
based largely on the NeXT-
Step OS, which is built on
the Unix Mach kernel. The
new OS will have an interface true to existing
Macintosh standards, although the first release
won’t run existing Macintosh applications. A
1998 release will run existing Macintosh appli-
cations through software emulation.
It will also incorporate support for Quick-
Time Media Layer, Meta Content Format, and
TCP/IP. Like NeXTStep, Rhapsody will em-
phasize CTash protection and preemp-
tive multitasking, helping Rhap-
sixly compete with Microsoft
Windows NT. Amelio has
made little mention of how
Rhapsody would approach
multiprocessing, a key issue
if this OS is to compete with
WindowsNT.
Contrary to many reports
predicting a 1997 arrival of
the hybrid NeXT/Apple OS,
Amelio has said that only the
developer’s version of Rhap-
sody will show up — and that
not until late in the year —
and that consumers will
not see the OS arrive until
the first quarter of 1998. Amelio also says
Apple will continue to upgrade its System 7
operating system technology even after Rhap-
sody arrives . — Sebastian Rupley
JAKE KIRCHNER
When No News Is Good News
P C makers sold 10 million more machines in 19%
than they did in 1995. According to one count,
they shipped almost 71 million machines total
worldwide, a year-to-year increase of almost 18 per-
cent. 'ITiis significant growth was on top of even greater
|>ercentagc gains the year before that. These numbers
would lead most people to believe that there ‘.s no end
in sight for the decades-long expansion of the personal
computing industry.
And yet for some reason, this amazing market vitality
has been greeted with great concern by the financial geniuses on Wall
Street and the sharp-eyed pundits of the general business press. Of
course, these are the people for whom there is no such thing as gotxl
g ne^^■s and to whom the glass is alw ays half-empty,
a These naysayers rightly note that the fourth quarter of 19% was
i slower than predicted, as holiday sales at computer stores failed to
I meet the unrealistic forecasts of overly hopeful retailers. And it's true
S that Apple Ls selling fewer machines as it struggles to regain its footing.
I But if retail customers — perhaps awaiting the new MMX Pentium ma-
o chines introduced in early January — failed to turn out in record num-
E bers. the basiness-oriented PC market has been skyrocketing.
I According to year-end numbers from market research firm
S Dalaquesl (the source of the 7l-million-units-shipped number), the
S leading sellers to the basincss PC market saw significant sales gains in
I 19%.Compaq.theworldleader,soldmorethan7.1 million machines
£ last year, a 1 -million-unit (or 18.5 percent) gain over 1995. Number
S two, IBM. enjoyed a 27.9 percent increase. .shi|>ping 6. 1 million PCs to
I exceed the 4.7 million it sold in 1995. Hewlett-Packard’s numbers
were even more impressive: a 51.8 percent increase in
sales, from 1 .9 million machines in 1 995 to 2.9 million in
19%. And domestically. Dell was on a huge run. shipping
71 percent more PCs in the U.S. last year than the year
before — 1.8 million machines versus 1 million.
Numbers from International Data Corp. (on a world-
wide basis) and from Computer Intelligence {for the
U.S. market) closely matched the Dataquest numbers.
And in the midst of these hardware hallelujahs. Intel
and Microsoft, the other industry bellwethers, reported
huge revenues and profits. So we at PC Magazine found it a little dis-
concerting to be inundated with phone calls throughout Januaiy and
February from slock analysts and business reporters wanting our
take on why the PC industiy had “stumbled.” Would IBM's stock-
price drop — evidently due to disappointing mainframe sales — affect
the high-fl)'ing slocks of Compaq. Intel. Microsoft, and other PC in-
dustry leaders? they asked.
Our response: “Slay calm. Look at the big picture. The PC busi-
ness — hardware and software — isdoingju-sl fine.”
One of the benefits of having been in the PC industiy' full-time for
quite a while is that we get used to taking the long view of thing3. As
we were reminded in preparing our fifteenlh-anniversaiy material
(which you'll find elsewhere in this issue), the personal computing
busine.ss ha.s come a very long way in a very short time. 1 5 years ago
we were already well into the PC age. but worldwide sales were less
than 1 million machines a year. Today, that figure's pushing almost
100 million machines every year.
If there’s bad news in that record. I can't find it.
30 PC MACiAZINE MARCH IS. 1997
C<^righted matertal
Microsoft BackOffice
a diverse selection of
servers
united by a single
«raison d’etre.»
(Thai'^ for
The new Microsoft* BackOffice" Is a different approach
to server software solutions. Not Just a shrink-wrapped
product, BackOffice Is a big, wide family of servers, each
designed with the Internet in mind , all designed to work
together. This means you can choose from the broad
range of BackOffice server software to assemble the best
solution for your business— one that augments what you
already use, extends your organization to the internet and
remains open to the future. And because all the BackOffice
products are based on Microsoft Windows NT' Server , you
know they will work independently and Integrate flawlessly.
So what Microsoft BackOffice gives you Is more than a
bunch of server software products— It's a comprehensive
strategy for Implementing easy-to-use, easv-to-manaee
server solutions across your entire o^nization. Or, as the
French would say, "Savoir-faire Is everywhere.”
Microsoft
Where do you want to go today?* www.mlcrosoft.com/backoffice/
01996 Mtcroiofi Corporation. AH rights reserved. Microsoft. Windows NT end Where do you want to go todays are registered trademarks and BackOffice is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Copyrighted material
Corel PHOTO-PAINT” 7
CorelDREAM 3D 7
FIRST PLACE
AWARDS y
Includes.
Also included:
• Eight powerful utilities
• 32,000 clipart images and symbols
• 1 ,000 photos
• 1 ,000 TrueType' and Type I fonts
• Over 450 CorelDRAW" templates
• 250 3D models
DRAW7
Power, Productivity and Precision!
Exceed the boundaries of traditional design with CorelDRAW'*' 7. Created for the professional illustrator, graphic artist and desktop
publisher. CorelDRAW 7 includes Corel PHOTO-PAINT"' 7 for photo editing and bitmap creation and CorelDREAM 3D 7 for 3D
modeling and rendering. Optimum performance is top priority with faster open, save and redraw across alt applications. Interactive tools
and utilities give you on-screen feedback, making the design process more intuitive. Explore your creative potential with CorelDRAW 7
and attain the impossible!
CIRCLE 362 ON READER SERVICE CARO
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All other product arnl company names are trademarks or registered trademarks ol their respective compariies
Trends PCs
DESKTOP PCs
PCs for the Proletariat
A new wave of budget-priced
PCs may hasten the machines*
penetration of the home. Several
leading manufacturers, including
AST Computer and Packard
Bell Electronics, are selling new
consumer PCs for about $ 1 .000,
while other vendors, including
Acer America Corp. and Com-
paq Corp.. have new PCs for
less than $1,500.
Packard Bell
Electronics (800-
733-5858, n'W'u-
.packardbeU.com)
is offering the Pack-
ard Bell cm, a 120-
MHz Pentium PC
that will sell for
$1,000. The indus-
try’s leading home-
PC seller is billing the
Cl 15 as a machine
for family computing and
Internet access. The .system is
equipped with 16MB of EDO
RAM, a 1 .2GB hard disk, an 8X
CD-ROM drive, and a 33.6-Kbps
fax modem with voice mail and a
full-duplex speakerphone. The
$1,000 price includes a 14-inch
monitor. 16-bil SRS 3-D Am-
phitheater Stereo sound, and a 64-
bit graphics accelerator with 1 MB
of graphics memory (upgradable
to 2MB) and MPEG 1 full-motion
video playback. (A less expensive
version of the system will be of-
fered without the monitor.)
Packard Bell s Fast Media tech-
nology allows for one-touch access
to the Internet as well as to the ma-
chine’s various communications
features.
Meanwhile. AST Electronics
(8(X)-876-4278, www.ast.com) is
selling a sub-$l,000 multimedia
PC exclusively through the
world’s largest retailer, Wal-
Mart. The AST Advantage! Ad-
venture 575 features a 133-MHz
486-class processor, SMB of
memory, a 630MB hard disk, an
8X CD-ROM drive, a 14.4-Kbps
fax modem, and a 14.4-inch
color monitor. The system’s two
stereo speakers are backed
by Sound Blaster-compatible
audio. The Advantage! Adven-
ture 575 comes with a full one-
year warranty.
Edging just above the $1,000
watermark is Acer (800-558-
2237, www.acer.com), which of-
fers the $1,200 Aspire 2011 home
PC. The system
CHEAP THRILLS: The Acer Aspire
2011 .
features Acer's charcoal-gray
chassis, has a 133-MHz Pentium
processor. 16MB of RAM. a
2GB hard disk, and an 8X CD-
ROM drive. This attractive price
does not include a monitor
(Acer's 14-inch monitor is $300).
but it does cover a 33.6-Kbps fax
modem with a speakerphone, a
16-bit audio card with 3-D sound,
and 256K of pipelined-burst L2
cache. Acer also includes soft-
ware MPEG 1 support and a one-
year parts-and-labor warranty.
For only $100 more than you
pay for Acer's system. Compaq
Computer Corp. (800-345-1518.
www.compaq.com) is now selling a
150-MHz Pentium-powered Pre-
sario 4160 with 24MB of memory
and a 2.1GB hard disk. This $1300
home PC is equipped with Com-
paq's Easy Access Buttons,
which offer convenient, ex-
ternal controls for the
system’s 8X CD-
ROM drive and its
33.6-Kbps DVSD
telephony modem
(featuring voice
mail. speaker-
phone. and fax
support). The Pre-
sario also includes a 32-
bit PCI graphics
\ card with 1MB
^ of EDO RAM,
two JBL Pro
stereo speakers that can attach to
the side of any standard Compaq
monitor, and integrated Compaq
Video Phone receive software.
Although a monitor is not includ-
ed (Compaq sells a 14-inch moni-
tor for $350), the price does in-
clude a one-year parts-and-labor
warranty with 90 days of on-site
service. — Cade Metz
MMXYourOldPC
After unveiling the Pentium Processor with MMX Technology in Janu-
ary, Intel Corp. (800-548-4725, vmw.intel.com) is offering an OverDrive
Processor version of the chip for upgrading Pentium desktops.
With a built-in voltage regulator, an integrated fan/heatsink, precon-
figured bus-to-core clock speed ratios, and compatible pinout, the
Pentium OverDrive Processor with MMX Technology allows users to
easily replace their outdated processors and upgrade to 1 50- or 166-
MHz MMX processing. MMX — a set of
57 new instructions designed to enrich
and accelerate PC multimedia — is
being incorporated into all future Intel
processors. For the speed demon, a 200-
MHz MMX OverDrive chip should arrive
in the second half of this year . — CM
READY
BACKUP: The
Micron
Millennia
comes with an
Iomega Zip
drive.
DESKTOP PCs
Zip it Up -
Convenient back-
up — long an after-
thought — is quickly
becoming a major
feature with corpo-
rate PCs. At the
start of the year,
Compaq Computer
Corp., Dell Com-
puter Corp., Gate-
way 2000. and Mi-
cron Electronics
announced either
standard or option-
al internal Iomega Zip drives for
their high-end PC lines. They
join the ranks of NEC and
Hewlett-Packard Co. both of
which have offered drives as op-
tions. These drives allow you to
store and organize significant
digital information on remov-
able 100MB hard disks at a rela-
tively low cost.
According to Micron (800-388-
6334, www.meLmicron.com), the
Micron Millennia MXE is the Hrst
direct-channel system to include
an Iomega Zip drive as standard
equipment. There are six base
configurations of this system — all
built around 160- and 200-Mhz
Pentiums with MMX Technolo-
gy. Prices start at $1 .999 with a 15-
inch monitor.
A nondirect vendor. Compaq
(800-345-1518. www.compaq
.com) has also incorporated the
Zip drive as standard on the
forthcoming Presario 4784 mini-
tower. Prices start at $2.4(X).
Dell (800-388-8542. www.dell
.com) is providing the Iomega
Zip drive as an option on Its new
Dimension XPS M166s and M200s.
which also use the new MMX
Pentium CPU. Prices start at
$2,199; the Zip drive is a $139
option.
Similarly, direct sales vendor
Gateway 2000 (800-846-2000.
www.gw2k.com) is offering an in-
ternal Zip drive option with its en-
tire desktop line of PCs. These
drives will ship with Iomega Zip
tools software. — CM
Mz\Rn!l-?.tW7 PC MAGAZINE 33
Copyrighted malarial
VOTED THE BEST SERVICE
AND THE LEAST LIKELY TO
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does not include documentation and may differ from retail veision ^n-site service provided by BancTec Service Corporation. On-siie service may not be available m certain remote locations *Pricas and
speolcations valid in ihe U S. only and sufaieci to change without notice. The Intel Inside logo and Penbum are registered trademarks and MMX is a trademark of Intel Corporation MS. Microsott Windows NT and
Windows are registered trademarks of Microsott Corporation EtherLink is a registered oademark of 3Com Corporation Trinitron is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation {>1997 Dell Computet Corporation
All rights reserved
Copyrighted material
IT.
NEW DELL DIMENSION XPS M1G6s
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• 2.1G8 Hard Drive (12ms)
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• MS Windows 95/30 Days Free 1
• Integrated Sound Blaster 16 Sound
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• Altec ACS-90 Speakers
• 3 Year Limited Warranty with 1
• MS Office 95 Pro with Bookshelf
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* Upgrade to a 17tS Monitor (15.7’ 1
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Buy a Deir computer, and according to the latest
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with it than you will with virtually any other major
brand- And in the rate event you do have a problem,
these readers went on to add that you still won't have
a problem Because you'll experience one of the
shortest times to reach a support person, one of the
swiftest resolutions of your problem and one of the
highest customer satisfaction rates in the industry. By
the way, this year's survey saw service and support
dwindling away, with most other major computer makers
being downgraded. Which should tell you something
loud and clear about the competition Apparently, the
only way they know how to cut costs is to cut corners.
IM»LL
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Sun 12pm-Spm In Canada! call 800-233-0702
I Keycode #04429 |
Copyrighted material
LANGUAGES
Trends Software
Edition (800-833-4674, w^vw
.ifnisoft.com), which provides
vocabulary and pronuncia-
tion lessons for everyday
words and phrases. This
two-CD-ROM set includes
2.000 key words and 250
phrases in American and
British English, French.
German, and Spanish
(Castilian and South Ameriam ).
There are also 1 ,(XX) key words in
Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch.
Greek, Hebrew . Indonesian,
Italian. Japanese. Korean,
Portuguese, and Russian. A
translator lets you choose ei-
ther English. French, Italian.
Ciertnan. or Spanish as the
source language.
Frt)m S\Tacuse Language
Systems (8(K)-797-5264,
www.syrlani'.com) comes
the Let's Talk series of lan-
guage tutorials. Priced at
$44.95 apiece and available
in French. German, Italian,
and Spanish, the Let's Talk
line builds ux:ahulary and
conversiUional skills for those
at the Ixjginner or intermedi-
ate le\el. For speakers of
Chinese, French.
German, Italian, Japanese, Kore-
an. Portuguese, and Spanish,
there's an English tutorial. You
can learn over 2.200 words with
the help of a speech-recognition
module and compare your pro-
nunciation with that of native
speakers.
If you’re looking for a more
classroom-oriented environ-
ment, try attending Syracuse’s
Language Connect University. A
$475 12-lesson interactive course
is comparable to a four-credit
college course in Spanish I,
where participants receive online
instruction, exams, and evalua-
tions. The weekly lessons require
about six hours of study per
week . — Melissa J. Perenson
The Power of Language
The next in the line of Power lan-
guages is the $99 Power Chinese.
Chinese is considered one of the
most difficult languages to learn,
but Power Chinese tries to make
the language more accessible to
English speakers. The software
compares and contrasts phrases
in Mandarin Chinese with their
English counterparts; in this way,
you start building a base founda-
tion of words and expressions.
The course features over 6(X)
Chinese characters, 800 phrases,
and 1.2(X) sentences; there are
also over 2,5(X) audio clips
recorded by native speakers and
numerous videos depicting real-
life situations. Equipped with a
friendly and intuitive interface,
the multimedia-intensive pro-
gram features many interactive
drills, including tutorials in pro-
nunciation, the use of four differ-
ent vocal tones in spoken Chi-
Whether you’re looking to brush
up your high-school Spanish for
fun or get a crash course in Chi-
nese because you’re being trans-
ferred to Guangzhou, there’s a
language package available to
suit your needs.
Transparent Language (8(X)-
752-1767. www.tninsparefU
.com) adds to its stable of lan-
guage offerings through its
recent purchase of BayWare,
w'hich manufactured Power
Japanese and Power Spanish.
WHEN IN ROME:
l.anyiuiye pacluifics
from IMSI (Icftt.
Syracuse (ahovei.
and Transparcni
(lopl.
ish. and Eng-
lish for Span-
ish speakers),
these pack-
ages provide ample instruction for
building basic conversation and
reading skills. New features in-
clude video tours, a reference re-
source of common words and
phrases, and an introductory
guide to the language.
Also from Transparent Is Word-
Ace!, a bilingual translation pack-
age that takes words from French.
German. Italian, and Spanish and
translates them into English — and
vice versa. The $29 WordAce! has
over 100,000 definitions and trans-
lations, as well as 500,0(X) verb
conjugations, native-speaker pro-
nunciations of over 40,000 words,
and learning games.
There are also $29 bilingual
packages, without sound, for
such languages as Danish.
Dutch. Finnish. Portuguese,
Norwegian, and Swedish.
A similar product is IMSI’s
$29.95 Easy Language; 1 7 Language
nese, and the main difficulties of
Chinese syntax and grammar.
Meanwhile. Transparent has
upgraded its $29.95 Language!
Now series of multimedia learning
products. Available in eight lan-
guages (French, German, Italian,
Latin, Portuguese. Russian, Span-
Master Utilities for Windows NT
Ready to get the most out of Microsoft Windows NT 4.0? Symantec
Corp.'s SI 20 Norton Utilities for Windows NT 4.0 will help you do just
that (800-441 -7234, www.symantec.com). This indispensable collec-
tion of utilities was designed especially for Windows NT 4.0 and helps
you head off problems atthe pass. At the same time, Norton Utilities
helps improve your system's performance.
By constantly monitoring your Windows NT workstation or server,
the comprehensive System Doctor can predict potential problem areas
and automatically apply a fix before you experience a system crash or
data loss. If a physical hard disk failure is imminent, the Self-Monitoring
and Reporting Technology sensor givesyou enough warning so you
can back up your critical data.
Internet users will appreciate System Doctor's Internet Speed-
ometers. They monitor both your connection and the site you're visiting
to determine the optimal time to surf the Web and the turnaround time
fora particular site.
The Norton Disk Doctor module detects and corrects most hard disk
problems and is capable of performing diagnostic and repair opera-
tions on both FAT16 and NTFS drives. Meanwhile, Norton Speed Disk
takes care of defragmenting your system, and Norton System Informa -
tion conveniently provides component and usage statisticsfor a given
workstation. The Norton Protection/UnErase feature lets you recover
files that have been accidentally deleted . — MJP
36 PC MAGAZINE MARCHES. 1997
Copyrighted malarial
rft:’
Trends Peripherals
So Many Monitors...
Although 17-inch monitors have
become more popular at the ex-
pense of 15-inch models, manu-
facturers continue to flood the
market with both sizes. And with
new vendors entering the fray, the
latest models from such familiar
names as MAG Inno Vision. NEC
Technologies. NSA/Hilachi. and
ViewSonic are sharing the shelves
with offerings from such newcom-
ers as Shamrock and ShinHo.
From NEC (800-632^*636. www
jiec.com) cxNne two mod-
els featuring the compa-
ny's unique CromaQear
CRT. which uses a new
0.25-mm mask design
that enhances image
clarity. The $400. 15-inch
Multisync XVI Sf delivers
1.024-by-768 resolution
at 85-Hz refresh, and the
$8(X), 17-inch MuNiSync
XV17+ has a 1.280-by- 1.024 maxi-
mum resolution at 75 Hz.
MAG InnoVision (800-827-
.3998. www.magmnovision.com)
hits the scene with its ultra-
affordable V’ Series. The $340.
15-inch 510V2 has a 0.28-mm
tube with 800-by-600 resolution
at 80-Hz refresh. The $550. 17-
inch 710V2 uses a 0.28-mm tube
and delivers l,024-by-768 reso-
lution at 80 Hz.
NSA/Hiiachi (800-441-4832.
www.nsa-hitachi.com) will soon
ship a new 17-inch offering, the
$7(K) SuperScan CM630U. Good for
graphics users and corporate desk-
tops, the high-refresh unit will use
0.26-mm dot pitch and deliver
1 .280-by- 1 .024 resolution at 80-Hz
refresh; the monitor can also han-
dle 1.600-by- 1.200 resolution,
though only at 68 Hz.
From ViewSonic Corp. (8(H)-
888-8583, www. view.sonic.com )
come two 15-inch contenders,
the $350 E655 and the $350.
multimedia-enabled Optiquest
VA656. Both deliver 1.024-by-
Optiquest includes integrated
speakers and microphone.
New to ViewSonic's 17-inch
lineup is the $950 PT775 SonicTron.
Targeted at graphics profession-
als, this aperture grille model has a
fine 0.25-mm dot pitch and deliv-
ers 1 ,6(X)-by- 1 2(H) resolution at 77
Hz (and 1 280-by-1.024 at 89 Hz).
The more affordable $600. 17-inch
Optiquest V773 is geared toward the
SOHO and general business user.
This 0.26-mm dot-pitch monitor
can deliver 1.024-by-768 resolu-
tion at a refresh rate of 80 Hz.
From its SuperView series of
midrange monitors. TeleVideo
(ill- slili J 0 -
fers both the 15-
inch SVIOO ($389
list), which deliv-
ers 1.024-by-768
resolution at 85
Hz and 0.28-mm
dot pitch, and
the 17-inch SV200
($665 list), which
has the same reso-
lution as the SVIOO at 86 Hz and a
finer 0.27-mm dot pitch. For
higher-end graphics and CAD
needs, the SuperView Pro series
includes the 17-inch SVP250 ($999
list ). an aperture grille monitor that
features Shadow Mask technology
and delivers 1.600-by-l J200
resolution at 75 Hz and a
grille pitch of 0.25 mm.
Scrapping for attention
are two models from Sham-
rock Technology Corp.
(310-946-9392. ' wivu’
.shanmKk-tech.com). The
$340. 15-inch M569 is a
multimedia unit with a
0.28-mm dot pitch and a
maximum resolution of 1,024 by
768 at 85-Hz refresh. It includes
two 3-watt speakers and a head-
phone jack. The $640, 17-inch C705
boasts a maximum resolution of
1 .600 by 1 .200 at 70-Hz refresh.
Out of the gate from ShinHo
Electronics & Communications
(8(X)-802-8116, www.shinhoiLsa
.com) come four monitors. They
include two 15-inch machines, the
$340 AV2 585F and the $370 AV2
585FS. a multimedia unit: and two
17-inch models, the $600 AV2 785F
and the $640 AV2 765F. All deliver
85-Hz refresh at l,024-by-768 res-
olution . — Toni Kistner
U|||li h We reviewed 4917-
Inch monitors in our
issue of Octobers. 1996. Our Editors'
Choice award went to the Compaq
V70, EIZO RexScan 7X-CTS, MAG
DX7(X)T, Optiquest V775, Panasonic
PanaSync S17, Samsung SyncMaster
17GU, and Sony Multiscan 17se II.
SCANNERS
Scanning for Everyone
We just completed our color flat-
bed scanner roundup, but here are
some new scanners that missed the
deadline for last issue's hardware
feature. "Capture the Color.”
Determined to make color
scanning cheap and very friendly,
newcomer Spot Innoscan (8(H)-
611-7768, www..spot.com.tw) en-
ters the arena with two flatbed
models. The $200 ScanTak-2C is a
24-bit, single-pass graphics scanner
with a maximum optical resolu-
tion of .300 dots per
inch (dpi), or up to
2.4(H) dpi with soft-
ware interpolation.
The scanner con-
nects to your PC
We re-
viewed
17 color flatbed scan-
ners in our issue of
March 4, 1997, and
our Editors' Choice
includes Spot's
imaging soft-
ware, Stantastick,
which supports
scanning multiple im-
ages. and ten additional
software programs, including
Caere Corp.'s optical character
recognition (OCR) engine and
Ulead's image editor. Image-
Pals 2 Go!
After testing all those full-size
units, we may have been particu-
larly susceptible to the
charms of the compact
FotoTak-6. Spot designed
this $200 miniature flat-
bed photo scanner with
the home market in mind.
and a true 6(X)-dpi optical res-
olution scanner. The unit
connects using a prc^ri-
etary AT-Bus inter-
face card, and it can
scan photos of up to
4.5 by 7 inches. Tbe
FotoTak-6’s desktop
interface. FunScan,
takes the form of a
child's bedroom and
makes it fun to launch
such included software
as Kai's Power GOO and Mono-
type Card Maker.
With a new angle on scanner
design comes the ArtiScan P24
($350 street), from Tamarack
Technologies (714-744-3979, www
.tamaracktechnologies. com ).This
24-bit. 3(X)-dpi model attaches eas-
ily to the PC via a parallel port, as a
sheetfed scanner does, but its
flatbed design is far more versatile
Sony
Picture Quality
Super Fine Pitch*
Trinitron CRT
Multiscan'
Technology
Accurate Focus
Corner to Corner
Sony Engineering
Vertically Flat Screen
Higher Resolutions
& Refresh Rates
Digital On-Screen
Controls
I
Sony Advantages
Broad Family
of Displays
National Service
and Support
Windows' 95
Plug and Play
Copyrighted material
Trinitron
Multiscan 300sf
d^is'ptau your productivity
Displays by Sony. Accurate focus corner to corner.
A cleaner, crisper picture. Vivid, precise color.
Your display is where your work gets done.
Don't you deserve a Sony?
www.sony.com/technology
SONY
Copyrighted mato^l
Trends Internet
WEB SITES
Death, Taxes, and the W6b
As income tax season hits full
stride, you don’t have to rely on
musty books or your brother-in-
law the accountant for guidance.
The Web offers a number of sites
devoted to tax information and
resources to help get you through
this annual ordeal.
The Tax News Network (www
.taxnews.com). from Coopers &
Lybrand. delivers a variety of re-
sources for tax professionals.
Many site elements are free,
including an Ask the Expert sec-
tion. news summaries, and an in-
teractive alternative minimum tax
calculator.
A premium section of the site is
available via subscription for $54()
per year per person. (A 30-day free
trial is available.) It features
real-time news developments,
personalized searching across
several online tax information
sources, and full access to Dow
Jones’s Dow Vision.
Whether you use Intuit's
TurboTax or not. you'll find the
free TurboTax Tax Center (tvww-
.qjh.com/iaxcenter) to be a valu-
able resource for preparing
your taxes. The Quicken Fuian-
cial Network (OFN) Tax Guide
includes tips and links to other tax
resources on the Web. There are
lists of acceptable medical deduc-
tions. explanations of taxable and
nontaxable income, and tips for
homeowners.
The TurboTax Tax Center
also offers the QFN Business
Tax Guide, with hints on proper
home-office deductions and de-
JAVA DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
Add Java Power to Your Site
Java, which promises object-ori-
ented application development
and platform independence, has
until recently been out of reach to
non-programmers. But three prod-
ucts are now making Java pro-
gramming accessible .
Coda, is a $495 Web
site-creation tool,
from RandomNoise
(415-437-0321, ivww
.randomnoise.com ) ,
that is written in Java
and can be used in-
dependently or with any HTML
editor. Aimed at Web site de-
signers who want to work with
objects rather than write code,
the product lets you easily im-
port your own components. And
We
reviewed
three Java development
tools in ourissueof
January 7. 1997; the
public beta version of
Visual Cafd won our
Editors' Choice award.
r... ■ :
■ • •
2 ::
5:_c
APPLET BUILDER: Synuiniec’s Visual Cafe.
40 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 15. 1997
the WYSIWYG interface lets
you position objects precisely on
your page.
A RAD tool for developers,
Asymetrix Corp.’s $99 SuperCede
Java Edition (800-448-6543, ivtviv
.asymetrix.com) fea-
tures a Flash Compiler
for modifying the
source code of a run-
ning application and
viewing the changes
immediately by click-
ing on the Update
button. With SuperCede. you
can also create applications by
simply dragging and dropping
components onto a canvas.
Symantec Corp.'s $199.95
Visual Cafd (800-441-7234, wwiv
.symaniec.com) comes
with 85 preset compo-
nents and controls that
function as soon as you
drop ihem onto the
palclie.
Visual Cafd immedi-
ately reflects the results
of any change you make
on the palette within
the source code and
vice versa. — Jennifer L.
Anderson
a -1-iMsi.j
j i i t rT
on the H&R Block site is its Tax
Refund Calculator. Simply
enter your filing status, gross in-
come, federal taxes paid in 1996,
number of dependents, and
either standard or itemized
deductions. Click on Submit
and get a general sense of
your tax refund in under
a minute. In case you
need professional help
filing your returns, you
can use the site's office
locator to find the H&R
Block nearest you.
predation allowances.
You can use the handy
lax calendar to make
sure you don't miss a fil-
ing date or read up on
the newest tax law
changes and how they
affect you.
H&R Block's Web site ftvrvH’
.handrblock.com) has free tax
tips and tricks, and federal and
stale forms are available for
download in Adobe Acrobat
format. The site offers a tax ad-
vice blurb of the day. and its tips
section includes information for
such specific groups as employ-
ers and single parents.
The most compelling feature
YnxmAzP. '
O© Ssass.
1
TAX HELP: Web sites from Intuit (above left)
and Coopers & Lybrand.
A tour of tax Web sites
wouldn't be complete without a
visit to the Internal Revenue Ser-
vice's site {www.irs.ustreas.gov).
You can get free tax forms and
publications, file for an exten-
sion, and learn how to file your
return electronically. The site
also offers IRS publications for
business owners and individu-
als. — David Lidskv
nwifiisr
nt3Bt3'
nnntET
ortnur
rST fUm |3I
pg PET
KQ7 133?
FuT ru fsn
NTERNET TELEPHONY
Phone Home via the Web
NetSpeak Corp. (407-997-4001, www.netspeak
.com) has released the S49.95 Video WebPhone 3.0.
The latest version adds real-time video communi-
cations capability to the company's existing Inter-
net phone software package. With Video Web-
Phone, you can communicate with any WebPhone
user, provided at least one party has a PC equipped
with a video capture card and camera.
In addition, WebPhone features MIDI music — to
keep your callers occupied while they're on hold —
caller ID, and voice mail. Video images can even be
saved as large, high-resolution graphics in a snap-
shot album.
The new system
requires Microsoft Windows 95 or Win-
dows NT; a PC with a Pentium processor
and a 28.8-Kbps connection are recom-
mended . — Nancy E. Hirsch
il C |1 \ p PC Magazine
ill. U i 1 r reviewed nine
Internet telephony packeges
in the issue of Octobers. 1996.
WebPhone 2.0 won our
Editors' Choice.
Copyrighted material
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CIRCLE 235 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCMAG.COM#>roducUnk
Copyrighted material
Trends Networking
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Internet Gets the Business
To most of US, the words elec-
tronic commerce (EC) refer to
the emerging consumer practice
of buying books, CD-ROMs,
and other goodies over the In-
ternet. There’s a lot more to EC,
however, than sending your
credit card number to Amazon
.com to get the latest Danielle
Steele novel.
For years, companies such
as Harbinger Corp. (800-367-
4272, www.harbinger.com),
Premenos Corp. (800-426-3836.
www.premenos.com), and Ster-
ling Commerce (800-299-4041.
www.stercomm.com) have been
supporting business-to-business
EC that’s based on electronic
data interchange (EDI). In
addition to supplying the neces-
sary EDI software, these com-
panies have supplied their cus-
tomers with access to private
value-added networks (VANs),
which in turn provide compa-
nies with a secure way to use the
Internet for sending purchase
orders, invoices, and so forth.
Business-to-business transac-
Harbinger' Express
Full-feamre^ CDt ymr
EXPRESS GOMMERGE: Harbinger Express lets you
use a browser to exchange EDI documents.
tions using the existing infrastruc-
ture of the Internet, however, were
not supported. But Harbinger.
Premenos. and Sterling now have
such offerings.
The new Internet-related addi-
tions to the Harbinger product
family are the TrustedUok Guard-
ian for UNIX and a new version of
Harbinger’s flagship EDI soft-
ware, TrustedLink Commerce: the
two products are sold together
in a $2,695 bundle. A Micro-
soft Windows NT Workstation
version of TrustedLink
Guardian should be
■ available by mid- 1997,
Using SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Proto-
col), data encryption,
and Harbinger’s Inter-
net Value-Added Ser-
vice (IVAS), Tnisted-
. Link Guardian can
j.send documents gener-
ated with TrustedLink
Commerce. With these
\ two products, businesses
I can also send EDI docu-
ments using a VAN.
In addition, Har-
binger is offering a
new service called Harbinger Ex-
press ($495 set-up fee plus
$29.95 monthly). The service
lets companies use browsers to
exchange documents, which are
then automatically translated
from HTML to EDI formal.
In the first quarter of this year,
Premenos is scheduled to release
its $25.000 Templar WebDox for NT.
WebDox lets you securely trans-
mit EDI forms over the Internet;
businesses at each end can view
documents via a Web browser.
WebDox can also be configured
to work in conjunction with on-
line catalogs, so that a customer
can order a product from a com-
pany’s online catalog. WebDox
generates and transmits the ap-
propriate forms to the company.
Sterling Commerce is also of-
fering products that allow its cus-
tomers — particularly smaller
businesses — to take advantage of
the Internet. Their newest prod-
uct is the EC Gateway for the Inter-
net, which is composed of Ster-
ling’s GenTraniServer (prices
start at $20,000), GenTran:Data-
guard (price depends upon
configuration), and Connect;
Firewall (price depends upon
configuration). These compo-
nents ensure the management of
commerce-related information,
encryption, and security, respec-
tively. — Sarah L. Roberts
Mapping Out a Grand Plan
Even for the most savvy of net-
working gurus, designing a net-
work is a daunting proposition.
Determining which products are
needed from which vendors, re-
solving interoperability issues,
and deciding on the logistical
placement of devices on the net-
work is no small task. With tools
from ImageNet, (617-239-8197,
www.imagenet-cane.com). Net-
work Tools (408-57 1 -2600, www
.networktools.com). and Net-
Suite Development (800-638-
7848, www.netsiiite.com). how-
ever, you can begin to tame the
task of network design.
NetSuite has new releases of
its sophisticated suite of pack-
ages: the $2,500 NetSuite Ad-
vanced Professional Design 2.0.
the $1,000 NetSuite Toolkit, and
the $2,000 NetSuite Professional
42 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Audit This ensemble has added
several features, such as the
whiteboard mode, that make it
easier to construct your net-
work. The whiteboard mode lets
you generate network design on
the fly and suspend validation,
so you can lest an idea before
locking it into your design.
The NetSuite Toolkit works to
convert your network designs
into HTML documents, so you
can post them on the Web. It also
has an IP calculator that helps
you plan IP subnets and generate
node addresses. The Profession-
al Audit component includes a
discovery engine that hunts
down information on your net-
work devices, so you don’t have
to make manual inspections.
Competing on similar ground
is ImageNet’s $8,000 CANE for
SWEET DESIGN: NetSuite offers a variety of tools that
help you plan and set up the perfect network.
Windows NT. CANE includes in-
telligent drawing and validation
tools that help get you started,
and it has an extensive library of
network product components,
which is handy when you’re de-
ciding which vendor's product
you want to add to your net-
work. You can also add modules
to supplement CANE, such as
the $1,9(K) IP Planner, which tionis. — SLR
helps you plan
IP networks. The
basic package in-
cludes the VLAN
planner to help
you unravel the de-
sign of a Virtual
LAN or VLAN.
Network Tools’
$4,995 Caliper is a
LAN/WAN de-
sign tool. This
product lets you
create network de-
signs, produce a
bill of materials
or products you
need for your network, and
generate detailed drawings. But
Caliper’s real hook is its add-on.
Virtual Agent Professional. Priced
at $9,995. Virtual Agent allows
you to run your dream network
on any SNMP management
platform before setting it up, so
you can get an idea of how man-
ageable the potential configura-
Copyrighied material
suBomm
The complete lm« ol SiaiSolt pioducts and ira>ning/con&ulting Mivicd& are available Irom authorized represenia*
Wee woddwido. tncJudmg: Austna. Belgium. Brazil Chile. Czech Repubbc, Denmark, Pmland. Greece. Hungary.
Irxlia. Japan. Korea. Malaysia. Mexica. The Nelherlsnds. New Zealand. Norway, Portugal. Russia. South Alrtca.
Spam. Sweden. Switzerland. Turkey Please contact your nearest Slatsott oflica lor the authorized representative
nearest you SiatSolt. the StatSoK logo. STATISTICA. and Sctolisheel are trademarks ol StatSolt. tnc
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STATISTICA (amomaucally confiRUiVN iust'lffor Vhidous 9^/Sl |bnf> fik* naincN.
dc. I i>r .i I ) ■ ^ compidi* daui analwis siMcm wiih ihmisands of on-scrwn ai.'Uonti/-
abk‘, pri-Si*tUalion-quiit\ graphs fiilK imt-graiwl with all pnHfdiiri's ■ Omipn-htnshv
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up menus ■ Multiple data-. a-sulLs-. and graph-Mindcmii mlh iintd-grafth links ■ The
largi-st selection of statistic, and gnqilts in a siiijde siMem; OMtipri'heiishe impleiiKitta-
tions trf: Kxploratory tethni(|iii-s with athanml brushing. multi-isa\ tables with banners
(presentation-qualm n.*porLs); nonpanimeinc-s; disinbutitm fitung; multiple a-Rtvs.siiin;
general nonlinear i-stimation. stepwise logil/probil; general -\NC,()\,VM\\(;o\ A. \uriance
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HTt'enAariable-speed scrolling, udiancixl ('liphoard support. DDK links, hot links to
graphs, ri'lauona! iiKTge. data verificalion/deaning) ■ Powirful .ST-l/AT'/CI RVilC lan-
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52.(H)() sariables (8 Mb) jht a*cord ■ I niimited si/e of files: extended ("quadruple")
paxiaon; unmaida*d speed ■ Exchanges data and graphs with other applications via
DDE. OIT;. or an extensive selivtion of file impiin/nport facilitiv^ (iml ODIU: access to
virlually all data ha.s**s ;md mainframe files) • Hundreds of types of graphs, incl. caiego-
ri/.ed multiple 21) and .M) graphs, ternary 2D/AD graphs, matrix plots, icons, and
unique multivariate (e g.. -»D) graphs ■ Kacilitk*s to custom-design new graph types
and add them permanently to menus or UMilbars ■ On-semit graph customization with
advaiK’ed drawing t<H>ls (e.g.. saolling and editing of complex ohjecis in 52.x a*al zoom
mode). ciHiii>ound (nested) OLE documents, ^lultifdi’ ttruph AufoUooul U/^w/, kin-
plates, spaial effeets, icons, page layout control for slides and priniouis: unmatched
s(H*ed of graph ri*draw ■ Interactive rotation, perspective and cross-sections of 51)
displays ■ large selection of IimiIs for graphical exploration of data: extensive brush-
ing uxils with aninuuon. filling, smixitliing. overlaying, .sptxiral planes, projections, lay-
ea*d compri*ssions. marked subsets • Price S995.
Quick STATISTICA (for Windows) • A subset of STAflSTKlA: compri*hensive
HHnuon of basic staiisiics and the full anaivtic and pa'senuiioiHimdiri grapliics cajwbili
ues of,S7;-17/.S7/(:-l • Pnee $495.
STATISTICA Industrial System (a-quires .STimT/Cf or (^uick .sTfr/.V-
nCA) ■ Tik* largest selection of industrial statistics in a sin)de package; quality control
charts (real-time ikiia acquisition options), pnicess capahiliiy analysis. R&K. sampling
plans, and an exla-meh compivlKTisive selection of expenmenial design (IX)E) mdhods
■ Hexible tixils to cuslomi/e and automate all analyx*s and reixms (incl. "turn key" sys-
tem options, and IimiIs to add custom prikitluixs) ■ Ihice $995.
STATISTICA/Mac (for Macintosh) ■Price $695 ((^iick $395)
l)onH*stic sh/b $12 per product; 50-day money back guarank*e,
STATISTICA has received the highest rating in
EVERY comparative review oi statistics software
in which It was featured, since its iirst release.
StatSoft
2300 E. 14th St. • Tulsa, OK 74104 • (918)749-1119
Fax:(918)749-2217 • WEB: http://www.statsoft.com
e-mail: info€'statsoft.com
a
rw
Talk to and'
Capture and distort
Edit home movies|||^i«|Muig
Obviously, you’ve got the Bigpicture:
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called the Bigpicture Video Kit
and it's available only
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Seeing Is Believing
. The video tele-
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lets you video conference point-to-
point or over the Internet,* letting
you actually see your friends while
you’re talking to them. It’s all here,
right now, in one affordable and
easy to use package.
A Whole New Dimension For Your PC
Of course, Bigpicture is more than
just a video telephone. It also lets you
e-mail video images to your friends
and even capture video streams from
the Internet. The result is hours of
online fun.
Just Add Imagination
Bigpicture comes with special
software that lets you capture and
distort virtually any video image. You
can also plug in your VCR and use it
to edit your own home movies.
What’s more, you can tailor your
Bigpicture experience to meet your
exact needs. Get everything in one
package with the VideoFun’ Kit, or
pick up the 33.6 Video Modem or our
new Video Camera separately.
And because Bigpicture is from
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come to expect from the world’s #1
maker of modems.
To learn more, visit vmw.usr.com
or call 1 800 DIAL USR. Once m
you get the Bigpicture, you’ll
see what you’ve been missing. I
QIMfailiotlcs
Other end of connection must also be camera^tiuipped to see called party. Compatible with any standard H.324 video st^tware. US. Robnftcs and the
USRahotics logo are registered trademarks, and VideoFun. Bigpicture <md the hi^irture hgo. x 2 and the x 2 logo are trademarks of US. Robotics. ProdtKl
specifications subieci to change without notice. Contact your US. Robotics representative for current product information. Q1996 US. Robotics.
All rights reserved.
Copyrighted material
H A N D S - 0 N REVIEWS OF NEW SHIPPING PRODUCT S
First Looks
Going with the Flow
These programs expand the definition of diagramming and
enhance ease of use. — By J. W. Olsen and Barry Simon
I
f a picture is worth a thou-
sand words, then for many
businesses a well-done tech-
nical illustration, flowchart, or
network diagram is the equiva-
lent of at least several volumes.
But the major programs avail-
able for putting diagrams and il-
lustrations together offer a wide
variety of features and abilities.
Since our last review of dia-
gramming software (“Flowchart-
ing Software,” May 30, 1995),
the lay of the land has
changed. For one
thing, what was a
world divided between
Microsoft Windows 3.1 and
DOS has evolved to become one
where Windows 95 holds sway
and Windows NT is rapidly be-
coming more popular.
EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES
Several of these programs have
evolved to become much more
Draw Software's $49 SmartDraw
3.0 and Patton & Patton’s $125
Flowcharting PDQ represent the
old guard of diagramming. They
focus on making the creation of
complex illustrations quicker and
easier. Although they have little
or no ability to create programs,
these two programs stress the
than a way to place symbols on a
screen for eventual printing or
placement in a presentation or
report. The most advanced dia-
gramming products are becom-
ing an environment for creating
applications.
Because of the increasing
fragmentation of the market, we
looked at a mixed bag of dia-
gramming programs. Smart-
quick creation of a credible flow-
chart or hierarchical diagram.
The new guard is represent-
ed by Micrografx’s $299 Flow-
Charter 7 and Visio Corp.’s
$350 Visio Professional 4.5. In
addition to creating complex
diagrams, these two programs
can serve as centers of applica-
tions creation.
All four products help with
the transition to the 32-bit world
by providing a 16-bit version (for
Windows 3.1) and a 32-bit
version (for Windows 95 and
Windows NT) in the same
box. Unfortunately, some
of the newest and
most interest
ing fea
tures
and found that the ability to cre-
ate a range of diagrams is only
the beginning of what these
products can do.
The freshening cycles of these
programs are sli^tly out of sync.
As a result, we reviewed the
base-level Flowcharter
alongside the higher-
level Visio Pro.
two programs cost
roughly the same amount of
money, however, and Micrograftt
plans to match many of Visio
Pro’s features — and introduce a
few of its own — when it is re-
vamped this summer.
FOUB-WAY STREET
Of the four programs, Flow-
Charter and Visio Pro set new
standards for user interactivity.
To reduce diagramming anxiety.
Flowcharting PDQ and Smart-
Draw stress user-friendliness,
but they don’t help much with the
task of turning a diagram into a
database application. Visio Pro^
inclusion of both Visual Basic for
Applications and ODBC data-
base links requires the skill of a
programmer at times, but
their inclusion yields
enormous
amount of
don’t
work
Windows 3.1. But
we reviewed the 32-bit
versions under Windows 95
power and
Visio Pro shines the
in terms of creat-
INSIDE
HKHSTUnUDS:
Adobe Acrobat
3.0 adds versa-
tility to the
electronic imag-
ing world. Fora
full review, see
page 54.
MASS STORAGE: Fujitsu
and Olympus weigh in with
230MB portable optical
drives. See page 64.
NUTH-O-MATIC: Axion can
turn your PC into a math
whiz. See page 73.
More Products Reviewed. .
PhotoPad
PhotoPlus
Snapshot Photo Scanner 1
Three digital cameras
Microsoft Picture Itl ...
Partition-!t
PartitionMagic 3.02
Quick View Plus 4.0
Headliner... 70
NetJetl.il. 70
Axiom 73
Adobe Persuasion 4.0 76
WinWhatWhere97 76
First Looks Online
Go online from
March 3 to 7 to
discuss this story.
IWW.KtlAI.eMI/
Mime/nH
s
z
I
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MACv\ZINE 45
SSSSSSSS'
First Looks
ing network and software dia>
grams, and it can export any of its
files to HTML for placement on
either an intranet or the Web.
With its Living Flowcharts and
automatically numbered objects.
Flowcharter builds upon its tra-
ditional flowcharting core to
meet the needs of professionals
in the areas of analysis, and busi-
ness and process control.
Meanwhile. exp>ect others to
catch up. Corel’s CorelFlow,
Clear Software’s allClear (re-
cently acquired by SPSS), and
Kaetron Software’s TopDown
Flowcharter will substantially
revamp their products in the
coming months.
The package you choose de-
pends as much on what you
need to diagram as on how
much control of your PC you
want to cede to the program.
Micrografx Inc.
Flowcharter 7
E ach release of Micrografx’s
FlowOiarter 7 (formerly ABC
Flowcharter) has stretched the
definition of diagramming soft-
ware. This $299 version is no dif-
ferent, because it mixes tantaliz-
ing treats with the program’s
solid flowcharting and diagram-
ming abilities.
Flowcharter has an unequaled
Flowcharter 7
List price; S299;
competitive upgrade, SI 29
Requires: 16MB RAM, 86MB
hard disk space; Microsoft
Windows 95, or Windovi/s NT
3.51 or later
Micrografx he.. Richardson, TX
800-603-0074; fax. 7 1 6-873-0906
www.microgr&fx.coni
Circle 420 on reader service card.
library of 3,800 symbols for use in
building a wide variety of charts
and diagrams. The product
has notable depth in terms of its
business process reengineering
(BPR) and total quality manage-
ment (TOM) abilities.
A subset of the Uk^Is found in
Micrografx s Designer has been
added to Flowcharter. With
them, you can create a wide va-
riety of new shapes and save
them for future use. Flow-
charter’s Layer Manager lets
you create layers of elements,
such as backgrounds and logos,
and lock them in place. You can
even hide layers, such as those
containing annotations.
A big bonus is the inclusion of
Living Flowcharts, a feature that
helps guide users through the
maze of a previously designed,
complex, business-process dia-
gram. Think of it as a road map
for navigating flowcharts. Each
object in a diagram can have an
associated dialog box that walks
users through the chart, based on
the answers they provide. You
can use applications of this type
to show a new employee a com-
pany procedure or to demon-
strate the way to fill out a form
interactively. The missing link is a
viewer utility — expected this
spring from Micrografx — that
will let users without Flow-
Charter run Living Flowcharts.
Flowcharter^ CoolSheets offer
what is arguably the easiest ap-
proach yet to creating templates.
To produce a hierarchical pyramid
diagram asing a CbolSheet, we an-
swered a few questions about the
number the of diagram^ sections
and their characteristics. We then
added our text, fill colors, and
background patterns, and the ^
project was done.
A handy Link
function
F I o w -
gHiciDpiti 7 15|m—
tdil ywM Fgrmal loolt ^*196 Jafndow U
wl yia i>l?
“iE
Dteig|«iairl »lHiliM<'l ■
ENTER HYPERSPACE;
/■'low Chtirtiiifi l*l)Q's
hyperlink functions inuke it easy to
link notes or suhcluiris, and
to navigate through
complex charts
JL.
~r
General Overview of the System Development Cycle
I Lf* Tft
r £M»9rb<«Ch«(
(• IfMindl
jhBp //«»» »«*
r Acton '
S«) «ndji«v
• r
Opera * wth (Hm w«b p«9( a It e« Monti
•Met] «aj trAi idtclttf Snto U Iht Rtf]
conrand off iha Slot mow on ta Wntom 95 T tiXbo
Charter associates an object
with an external diagram
or program — or a Web site.
Users can then move seamless-
ly from an object to an associ-
ated Web page. In addition,
the program’s WebCharter fea-
ture maps Web sites — right
down to the varying levels of
links you want. Clicking on ob-
jects in a WebCharter diagram
takes you to related pages on
the Web.
Flowcharter can create Vi-
sual Basic scripts automatically
based on any chart you’ve
made. Add in the program’s
VB editor and 500 published
OLE automation APIs and
events and you have an appli-
cations powerhouse that will
be further augmented later this
year with the expected addi-
tion of VBA.
If you demand powerful and
diverse traditional flowchart-
ing or business-process analy-
sis and an instant application
builder, look no further than
Micrografx’s Flowcharter 7.
Patton & Patton
Flow Charting PDQ
P atton & Patton’s Flow Chart-
ing PDQ — the successor to
Flow Charting 4 Windows —
. strives to achieve case of use
rather than emphasizing
^ new features, func-
tions, and pro-
gramma-
► bility.
To achieve
that goal, it takes
^ a relatively minimalist
^ approach, despite its $125
sticker price.
As with many other diagram-
Flow Charting PDQ
Street price; $125;
competitive upgrade, $69
Requires; 16MB RAM, 5MB
hard disk space; Microsoft
Windows 95 or Windows NT
Panon & Panon, Morgan Hid, CA
800-525-0082; lax. 406 778-9972
www.patton-patton.com
Circle 422 on reader service card.
46 PC MACiAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
Editors’ Choice
• Visio Professional 4.5
EDITORS’
CHOICE
In the last two years, the flow-
charting and diagramm ing mar-
ket came to a fork in the road: One
way pointed toward the traditional tasks of
placing icons on the screen, the other led to
using these symbolic programs as a way to cre-
ate novel applications.
Visio Corp.s $350 V^isio Professional 4.5 earns our Editors'
Choice award because of its ability to take both roads at once. Not
only is Visio I*rt> a fine basic diagramming Ux)l with a giKxi libraiy
of symbols, but its implementation of automation functionality
leads the pack. In particular, through VBA support and \1sio Pro's
tight ct)mmunicalions with external data and major third-party ap-
plications. V'isio Pro can be the center of programming efforts.
Visio Pro is also the only product in our roundup that sup-
ports output of ail of your diagrams to I ITML for posting on
the Web or an intranet. And in spite of ail its capabilities.
Visio Pro manages to re-
tain the inviting drag-
and-drop interface that
has made this program
so pt)pular.
Meanwhile. Micro-
grafx's Flowcharter 7
merits an honorable men-
tion for its ease of use
and automation features.
In some respects. Flow-
charter is half a step behind Visio Pro. Us unique Living Row-
Charts makes navigating the most complex process diagrams
easy even for flowchart-phobic users. Although the program
has V'B scripting.it lacks the VBA and HTML output support
that would have made Flowcharter an Editors' Choice con-
tender. lAK)k for a midsummer upgrade to bring these additions.
Patton & Patton’s $2(K) Flow Charting PDO and Smart-
Draw's $.50 Smart Draw retain their fixrus on making diagram-
ming easier. They include only minimal automation capabili-
ties — primarily through OLE 2.0. SmartDraw in particular
may be attractive to those who have only an (Kcasional need
to create diagrams.
ming products, you begin your
design by clicking on an object,
tine, or text button, which causes
the toolbar to display appropri-
ate options. In addition to the se-
lector button, a button on the left
of the work space hides and re-
stores the current symbols
palettes — a good way to keep
them out of the way but still
handy.
Adding, modifying, or mov-
ing objects on your chart is in-
tuitive, so you quickly come
up to speed with PDQ. and
well-designed documentation
awaits if needed. Unlike with
other diagramming products,
however, the size of an object
doesn't automatically expand
when you add text, so you must
manually resize the object after
text is entered. And if you
delete text that overwrites the
borders of an object, the lines
don't reappear until you re-
fresh the screen.
Patton & Patton has im-
proved some aspects of its
flowcharting program. More
than one template may now be
open at a time, and zooming in
and out is more flexible. You
can now connect objects by
clicking on one object then
dragging a line to the other.
Unfortunately, when working
on a diagram, you still can’t ro-
tate text or other objects, and
print preview has not yet been
added to this program.
Like Flowcharter 7. PDQ
acts both as an OLE server
and a client, but unlike Visio
Pro. it can’t create VBA pro-
grams.
If the $125 price of Flow
Charting PDQ makes you
blanch, there’s also a $49
scaled-down version that can
be downloaded from the com-
pany's Website.
SmartDraw Software Inc.
SmartDraw
S martDraw Software’s $49
SmartDraw 3.0 hides sur-
prising depth behind its easy-
going interface. An excellent
resource for the graphically
challenged. SmartDraw is for
those who need to create occa-
sional diagrams but don't want
to learn how to use a more
complex tool.
With its help for
selecting the
right tern
plate.
FINDERS KEEPERS:
SmartDraw locales elusive
symhifis in its library by name
or keywortl. Just fill in the partial
new-user hints that pop up the
first time you use a function (or
when you make a mistake), and
skillful integration of drag-and-
drop operations, you may never
have to open the program’s
well-written manual. You create
diagrams by dragging and drop-
ping lines and shapes from a
toolbar, and symbols from the
program’s 1,500-object library.
You then add connectors, text.
^ and color from pull-down
menus or right-click
context menus.
After you
specify
a sym-
bol’s name
or keyword, the
program's clever Find
function makes quick work
of locating exactly the correct
symbol. As with RowCharter,
SmartDraw 3.0
List price: S49
Requires: 8MB RAM, 14MB
hard disk space; Microsoft
Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or
Windows NT
SmartDraw Softwara Inc . San Diego
800-501-0314:1811.619 543.2SU
www.sinartdraw.com
Citcit 421 on nader service card.
MARC H 25. 1997 PC MACjAZINE 47
First Looks
you can create and save new
shapes as well as rotate shapes,
symbols, and imported objects
to any angle. All in all, Smart-
Draw makes good use of snap-
to grids, automatic sizing, and
various alignment methods.
Generally, the result is a profes-
sional-looking diagram.
Objects and groups of ob-
jects keep their connectors in-
tact when moved. And when
you add or delete elements,
connectors are automatically
added or deleted.
New to SmartDraw are ex-
port filters for .GIF and JPEG
images. There’s even an option
for adding interleaving and
transparency for Web pages.
The print preview feature was
a real time saver.
For floor plans and similar
drawings, the program’s Auto-
matic Dimensioning labels se-
lected lines with their lengths.
Then when you rescale the
drawing, the labels are updated
automatically.
As far as programming goes,
SmartDraw is an OLE 2.0 serv-
er. Unfortunately, it doesn't sup-
port OLE automation — as do
Flowcharter and Visio Pro — or
VBA — as does Visio Pro. So
you can create drawings within
Microsoft Office and other com-
pliant applications, but you can’t
create standalone programs. On
the other hand. SmartDraw
picks up Microsoft PowerPoint s
color-scheme protocols, so
SmartDraw diagrams blend
Diagraming: Side by Side
✓ YES JfNO
Producij listadnxIptiatMiicalonlw Flow Visio
Red type denotes Editin' Choice FiowCharter? Charting PDQ SmartDraw3.0 Professionet 43
Price
S299(list)
Si 25 (street)
$49 (list)
$350 (street)
Shapes
3.800
540
1.500
2,100
User-interactive flowcharts
✓
X
X
X
Support for layers
✓
X
X
✓
OLE 20 client/server
✓ ✓
✓ ✓
Xt/
✓ ✓
OLE 2.0 automation
✓
X
X
✓
Can create VBA applications
X
X
X
✓
Microsoft Office 97
compatibiliTy
✓
X
X
✓
Direct database and
spreadsheet access
✓
X
X
✓
HTML output
X
X
X
✓
in well with your presentations.
In short, SmartDraw 3.0
provides remarkable ease of
use and ample power for the
occasional diagrammer. And
all at a bargain basement price.
Visio Corp.
Visio Professionai
'mm
EOnORS^
CHOICE
<6 Cite Sh«o«
DitflHl ^lal tUtiai-
taau laart
>1 mp\ tfi ■!/!
A lot more is note-
worthy about Visio
Corp.’s $350 Visio
Professional 4.5
than its inclusion of
Microsoft^ Visual
Basic for Applica-
tions (VBA) 5.0. The grand^ddy
of point-and-click diagram-
ming software, Visio Pro has
managed to retain its superb ease
of use and flexible ^
interface, while
doing an
out-
LAN-O-MATIC:
VisioPro !v shapes im hule
(liafirams of acinal computer
etpiipment, so ytmr network
layout diagrams can be
realistic. ^
l»lAl O]o}o|Q|o|C3M0|0iV|Q|Q|0|Q|or
MANAGING NETWORK D*
Now
f
hift 1
icM
J
m
J Opwi • SMfiDiMMIQ LAl«»f
standing job of introducing inte-
gration with applications.
The program comes with 2,100
symbols that run the gamut of
uses, from diagramming net-
works, to charting application
logic, to illustrating and docu-
menting business processes. The
program retains the drag-and-
drop drawing capability that has
defined this program from the
start, but Visio Pro goes a step
further than the other programs
by emphasizing and using the in-
telligence built into its objects.
Tlie inclusion of database con-
nectivity via ODBC with the
other automation tools lets de-
velopers make graphical front
ends to databases useful for
many tasks, including sales-force
automation. For example, a pro-
grammer can set up a template
that allows a furniture sales
person with a notebook
computer togener-
> ate a database
entry at the cus-
lomerls site. This entry is
then linked to a Visio diagram
for each sales prospect.
And not only can furniture
symbols be dragged and dropped
into place on a Visio floor plan,
Vlslo Professional 4i
Street price: $350
Requires; 1 6MB RAM, 55MB
hard disk space; Microsoft
Windows 95 or Windows NT
Visio Corp.. S«attie
800-248 4746; fax, 206-S21 -4501
www.vitio.com
Circftf *23 on nadorservico card.
but macros can be linked
to the creation and dele-
tion of objects. In this
way, the database can be
kept in sync with compa-
ny servers and complet-
ed orders can be gener-
ated automatically.
Links to Excel can
track costs and ware-
house availability and
even display them in
Visio. There is even a
wizard that produces a
block diagram of the re-
lations between tables
and fields in a database.
New to this version are a wiz-
ards that help with building
charts and diagrams. There are
several new sets of special-inter-
est symbols, and for drawing di-
agrams of computer networks,
Visio Pro is without peer. There^
a wizard that together with more
than 300 vendor-specific smart
shapes of computers, communi-
cations, and networking gear can
make quick work of describing
just about any LAN.
For flowcharting-software-de-
velopment projects there are
templates of objects for various
systematic approaches (such
as Nassi-Schneiderman and
Yourdon-Coad diagrams). In ad-
dition, this version adds some-
thing special for software design-
ers: a library of the shapes for
documenting the Windows 95
user interface of an application.
Visio Pro can convert any di-
agram into an HTML file for
Web distribution, and the pro-
gram includes a wizard to dia-
gram a Web site. There are even
tools for using Visio Pro to un-
derstand the internal workings
of the program itself. Our fa-
vorite is the wizard that docu-
ments the smart shapes in a
stencil.
Visio Professional 4.5 is a pro-
gram with a dual personality; It%
both a substantial upgrade for
those with high-end automation
diagramming needs and a pro-
gram for first-time users who
want to create a network diagram
or flowchart. □
48
PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
E HOLDS THE KEYS
Deep in the Dakota prairie, a small town prepares for another
Midwest winter. The townsfolk begin their annual migration to warmer
climates, leaving behind the "Keykeeper." a traditional hero of the
plains. He is entrusted with their most valued possessions — including
fresh technology from Gateway 2000. GATEWAY"' PCs are the key to
all his computing needs, taking him farther, faster than the towaspeople.
His new-look GATEWAY 2000'’ G6-200XL multimedia PC keeps
the keykeeper company as he thaws out. A new case design and color-
coded cables provide easier access and setup. He basks in the blazing
32-bit performance of the Intel Pentium* Pro processor until it's time to
brave the elements. Soon he will make his first round through the town,
ensuring all is well and in its rightful place.
S. '4 /
Destination™ Big Screen PCs.
D6-200
D5-166
■
D5-200
■
■ Intel* 166MHz Pentium* Processor
with MMX'“ Technology
■ 32MB Synchronous DRAM
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ Destination 31" VGA Monitor
■ STB* 2MB VRAM Graphics
Accelerator w/ Cable-Ready TV Tuner
■ 2.5GB Urns HIDE Hard Drive
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
■ 16-Bit Ensoniq® Wavetable Sound Card
■ TelePath* 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem
■ 7-Bay Charcoal-Colored PC Case
■ Wireless Keyboard w/ Integrated
EZ Pad’'' Pointing Device
■ Wireless Field Mouse* Remote
■ Four-Channel RF Receiver
■ Microsoft* Windows* 95
■ Destination Software Collection
■ MMX Technology-Enhanced Software Bundle**
■ Gateway Gold'“ Service and Support*
for Big Screen PCs
■ D1SH’“ Network Satellite System* Offer
$2999 AsIowas''S104/mo.
Gateway Solo™ Portable PCs
2100 55-120
■ 1 1 .3" DSTN SVGA Color Display
■ Intel 120MHz Pentium Processor
■ 16MB EDO DRAM expandable to 72MB
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ 1MB EDO Video RAM
■ Zoomed Video Port
■ 1GB Hard Drive
■ Modular 8X CD-ROM Drive
■ Modular 3.5" Diskette Drive
■ 16-Bit Sound & Stereo Speakers
■ NiMH Battery & AC Pack
■ 85-Key MS Windows 95 Keyboard
■ Carrying Case
■ MS Windows 95
■ MS Works 95
■ Gateway GoldService and Support
for Portable PCs
$2299 As low as ' S80/r]o.
2200 55-166
■ 12.1" Active Matrix SVGA Color Display
■ Intel 166MHz Pentium Processor
with MMX Technology
■ 80MB EDO DRAM
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ 2MB EDO Video RAM
■ Zoomed Video Port
■ 2GB Hard Drive
■ Modular 8X CD-ROM Drive
■ Modular 3.5" Diskette Drive
■ 16-Bit Wavetable Sound & Stereo Speakers
■ 28.8 PCMCIA Data/14.4 Fax Modem
■ Lithium Ion Battery & AC Pack
■ 85-Key MS Windows 95 Keyboard
■ Carrying Case
■ MS Windows 95
■ MS Office 97. Small Business Edition Plus*
■ Gateway GoldService and Support
for Portable PCs
$5299 As low as* $183/mo.
■ Intel 200MHz Pentium Processor
with MMX Technology
■ 32MB Synchronous DRAM
■ 512K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ Destination 31" VGA Monitor
■ STB 2MB VRAM Graphics
Accelerator w/ Cable-Ready TV Tuner
■ 2.5GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
► EasyPhoto™ Drive
■ 16-Bit Ensoniq Wavetable Sound Card
*■ harman/kardoD*Hi^-Fidelity Sound System
■ TelePath 33.6 Data7I4.4 Fax Modem
■ 7-Bay Charcoal -Colored PC Case
■ Wireless Keyboard w/ Integrated
EZ Pad Pointing Device
■ Wireless Field Mouse Remote
■ Four-Channel RF Receiver
■ MS* Windows 95
■ Destination Software Collection
■ MMX Technology-Enhanced Software Bundle**
■ Gateway Gold Service and Support*
for Big Screen PCs
■ DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$3999 As lowas*$138/mo.
2100 55-l.U
■ 12.r Active Matrix SVGA Color Display
■ Intel 133MHz Pentium Processor
■ 24MB EDO DRAM expandable to 72MB
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ 1MB EDO Video RAM
■ Zoomed Video Port
■ 1.3GB Hard Drive
■ Modular 8X CD-ROM Drive
■ Modular 3.5" Diskette Drive
■ 16-Bit Sound & Stereo Speakers
■ Lithium Ion Battery & AC Pack
■ 85-Key MS Windows 95 Keyboard
■ Carrying Case
■ MS Windows 95
■ MS Office 97. Small Business Edition Plus*
■ Gateway GoldService and Support
for Portable PCs
$3349 As low as' $116/ mo.
*MS Office 97. Small Business Edition Plus
includes MS Word 97. Excel 97. PuNuher 97,
Automap Streets. Encarta* 96 and Outlook’' 97.
**MMX Technology-Enhanced Software Bundle
includes Pod'T Eraser"’- Turn About. The
Ultimate Human Body Version 2.0. and The
Third Dimension"
’Finatiring awilabte on approved credit issued and
administered by MBNA America* Bank. N.A.
Payments based on 36-month term at 14,9^ Annual
Percentage Rate.
'Madmum data transfer rale dependent an certain
variables including particular modems with which you are
communicating, telephone lines, communications toftware
and cammunicatians protocob.
*The Destinaikm 31 * mondor b covered by a ane-year
limited warranty. or write for a fret copy.
GSA Schedule #GS-35F-3349D
GATEWW2000
■ Intel 200MHz Pentium Pro Processor
■ 64MB EDO DRAM
■ 256K Internal Cache
■ Destination 31" VGA Monitor
■ STB 2MB VRAM Graphics
Accelerator w/ Cable-Ready TV Tuner
■ 3.8GB Urns EIDE Hard Drive
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
► EasyPhoto Drive
■ 16-Bit Ensoniq Wavetable Sound Card
b barman/kardon High-Fidelity Sound Systi-n
■ TelePath 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem
■ 7-Bay Charcoal-Colored PC Case
■ Wireless Keyboard w/ Integrated
EZ Pad Pointing Device
■ Wireless Field Mouse Remote
■ Four-Channel RF Receiver
■ MS Windows 95
■ Destination Software Collection
■ Gateway GoldPremium Service and Support*
for Big Screen PCs
■ DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$4399 As lowas'SlS2/mo.
2200 55-150
■ 12.1" Active Matrix SVGA Color Display
■ Intel I50MHz Pentium Processor
with MMX Technology
■ 32MB EDO DRAM expandable to 80MB
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ 2MB EDO Video RAM
■ Zoomed Video Port
■ 1.3GB Hard Drive
■ Modular 8X CD-ROM Drive
■ Modular 3.5" Diskette Drive
■ 16-Bit Wavetable Sound & Stereo Speake^^
■ Lithium Ion Battery & AC Pack
■ 85-Key MS Windows 95 Keyboard
■ Carrying Case
■ MS Windows 95
■ MS Office 97. Small Business Edition Plus*
■ Gateway Gold Service and Support
for Portable PCs
$3899 As low as' SI35/mo.
*lvr a limiled time, Destination and multimedia
system purchases include a coupon fw one
DISH Network Salellite system
Isatellile receiver, Ifl-inch
antenna with .tingle LNBF,
infrared remote coniroD
at no charge with the
purchase of
a ane-year
subscription
to a qualifying
programming
package
from DISH
Network
for SJOO. Taxes, delivery and instadation not
included. Satellite system service covers 48
contiguous states and u supported by DISH
Network. Residential use only.
Gateway 2000 Quikty
Maaafrmm Syunu (or
CutoQcr Hard* are
Support. Skru Falls. South
Da^: Desktop A Foruble
Manu(aclunnf Divuioos and
Rrmaoufartunn; in North
Sioua Cty. South Dakota,
are ISO 9002 certiAtd.
"IVHi’vr got a friend in the business , " '
8 0 0 - 5 5 5 - 2 0 9 4
Pentium
www.gw2k.com
Pentium'
4jG4T£Mfe^K2000
'■»^*** ' ")'oinv gol afrieiuUn ihe husim‘si. '*‘
8 0 0 - 5 5 S\>2 0 9-4
w w w . g w .com
"CopyitotMed material
PEN NEW DOORS
He saved the schoolhouse for last. Here select systems from Gateway's
entire product line tout the new Intel Pentium processor with MMX'”
technology. He immediately dives into an all-night-long cyberfest. The
extra LI cache on the Pentium processor with MMX increases raw horse-
power. Plus, MMX technology is designed to take advantage of MMX
instruction-enhanced software, opening doors to amazing multimedia. And
the introduction of a 166MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology in
the Gateway Solo 2200 delivers performance that compares to similarly
configured Pentium processor-ba.sed desktops. The Dakotas have never
been a place for the faint of heart, and the Pentium processor with MMX
technology makes it even more of an adventure.
Gateway holds the keys to yourcomputer needs. Call us today.
spis J9q)0 uo suo|pru)su| mo||Oj x
>{Deo p3)jaAU|
GbsillpBa<>c 0018
Back
1. Follow instructions on the other side
fJNLOCK THE POWER
He forges a path through the raging blizzard. Waiting in the
post office is a Gateway Solo" 2200 portable PC, a force more
powerful than the winter storm outside. Next to it is a high-
performance G6-200 Pentium Pro processor-based professional
PC. Both systems can be custom configured and are loaded with
lots of great features. Microsoft* Office 97 Small Business Edition
(SBE) Plus is tailored to the needs of small businesses, and it’s pre-
installed. Keeping the post office organized was not only going to
be easy, it was going to be fun. Office 97 SBE Plus includes MS*
Word 97. Excel 97, Publi.sher 97. Automap Streets. Encarta* 96 and
Outlook™ 97. The keykeeper could play post office all day, but
duty calls.
iHHH
i
1
Multimedia Systems.
PS-133 FAMILY PC" ■ PS-166 FAMILY PC I PS-200 FAMILY PC ■ G6-IS0 FAMILY PC
■ Intel* 133MHz Pentium* Processor
■ 16MB Synchronous DRAM
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
■ CrystalScan*500 .28dp Monitor
(13.9" viewable area)
■ 2MB SGRAM. 3-D 64-Bit PCI Graphics
■ I.2GB 11ms HIDE Hard Drive
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
■ 16-Bit GATEWAY " Sound
■ Altec” Lansing ACS-41 Speakers
■ TelePath® 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem
for Windows with Speakerphone
■ Mini Tower Case
■ 104* Keyboard & MS* Mouse 2.0
■ Microsoft* Windows* 95
■ ^Generations III Software Collection
■ (jateway Gold'" Service & Support fcK"
Desktop PCs
■ DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$1599 As low as'' $5S/ido.
■ Intel 166MHz Pentium Processor ■
with MMX'" Technology
■ 32MB Synchronous DRAM ■
■ 256K Pipelined Burst Cache ■
■ CrystalScanTOO .28dp Monitor ■
(15.9" viewable area)
■ 2MB SGRAM, 3-D 64-Bit PCI Graphics ■
■ 2.5GB 11ms HIDE Hard Drive ■
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives ■
■ 16-Bit Gateway Sound ■
■ Altec Lansing ACS-41 Speakers ■
■ TelePath 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem ■
for Windows with Speakerphone
^ New Look Mini Tower Case >
■ 104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse” ■
■ MS* Windows 95 ■
■ MS Office 97. SBE Plus* ■
■ MMX Technology-Enhanced Software** ■
■ Gateway Gold Se^ce& Support for ■
Desktop PCs
■ DISH Network Satellite System* Offer ■
$2199 As low as* S76/IDO.
Intel 200MHz Pentium Processor ■
with MMX Technology ■
32MB Synchronous DRAM ■
512K Pipelined Burst Cache ■
CrystalScan700 .28dp Monitor
(15.9" viewable area) ■
2MB SGRAM, 3-D 64-Bil PCI Graphics ■
2.5GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive ■
12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives ■
16-Bit Ensoniq® Wavelable Sound Card ■
Altec Lansing ACS41 Speakers ■
TelePath 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem
for Windows with Speakerphone ►
New Look Mini Tower Case ■
104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse ■
MS Windows 95 ■
MS Office 97, SBE Plus* ■
MMX Technology-Enhanced Software**
Gateway Gold Service & Support fw ■
Desktop PCs
DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$2499 As low as* $87/n)o.
Intel 180MHz Pentium FYo Processor
32MB EDO DRAM
256K Internal Cache
CrystalScan700 .28dp Monitor
(15.9" viewable area)
2MB SGRAM, 3-D 64-Bil PCI Graphic
2.5GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive
12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
16-Bit Ensoniq Wavetable Sound Card
Altec Lansing ACS-41 Speak«s
TelePath 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem
with Speakerphone
New Look Mini Tower Case
104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse
MS Windows 95
MS Office 97. SBE Plus*
Gateway Gold Service & Support for
Desktop PCs
DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$2449 As low as* $85/mo.
G6-200 FAMILY PC
■ Intel 200MHz Pentium Pro Processor
■ 64MB EDO DRAM
■ 256K Internal Cache
■ CrystalScan700 .28dp Monitor
(15.9" viewable area)
■ STB* ViRGE”/VX 4MB, 3-D 64-Bit
PCI Graphics
■ 3.8GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
■ 16-Bit Ensoniq Wavetable Sound Card
■ Altec Lansing ACS-41 Speakers
■ TelePath 33.6 Data7l4.4 Fax Modem
with Speakerphone
> New Look Mini Tower Case
■ 104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse
■ MS Windows 95
■ MS Office 97. SBE Plus*
■ Gateway Gold Service & Support for
Desktop PCs
■ DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$2899 As low as*$100/mo.
G6-200XL
■ Intel 200MHz Pentium Pro Processor
■ 64MB EDO DRAM
■ 256K Internal Cache
■ CrystaIScan700 .28dp Monitor
(15.9" viewable area)
■ STB ViRGE/VX 8MB. 3-D 64-Bit
PG Graphics
■ 5.1GB lOms EIDE Hard Drive
■ 12X CD-ROM/3.5” Diskette Drives
■ CD-Recordable w/ SCSI Controller
■ 16-Bit Ensoniq Wavetable Sound Card
■ Altec ACS410&ACS-251 Speakers
■ TelePath 33.6 Data714.4 Fax Modem
with Speakerphone
^ New Look Mini Tower Case
■ 104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse
■ MS Windows 95
■ MS Office 97. SBE Plus*
■ fliGenerations UI Software Collection
■ Gateway GoldPremium Service & Support
for Desktop PCs
■ DISH Network Satellite System* Offer
$3749 As lowas*SI30/mo.
Performance Gra|)h
lnt«ri66MHz
Pentium w/MMX
High-End Business
Winstone* 97 Rating Winstone 97 Rating
Ziir-Divi»' WiMtone 97 Vmwa 1.0 producnl scorn of 16.9 utd 36.4; 18.2 and
38.0: 18.5 and 37.4; and 20.2 and 42.7 WiBstooe Vmion 1.0 ants tm ib Hifb-Enl
Wnuloae 97 wile and Bitsmess Winstone 97 nile on Galevay 2000. lac. PCs
coeli|ured «iU> I66MIU blei tVoiium Processor aritti MMX tecMiolofy. 200MHi
Intel FVntiun Processor nitb MMX tccbooiogy. ISiMHz Intel Pentiam Pro
processor and 20UMHz Intel Penlwa Pro processor, respectn^y. All Curway
2000 PCs lesied featured 32.MB RAM. 2S6K RAM cacbt. 3.8GB hard disk. IDE
controller. lAT file sysirn. and no bard* are disk cacbe. Systems nchidc S3
ViRCE/VX gr^ics adapter; *ilb 4MB VRAM *ilb vl.23in3 driver: 1024x768
« lib 256 colors; and a refresh rale of 7 SHl Test systems used MS DOS 7.1 and MS
Windows 95. All piodocts used in the test were shippmi versions available to the
peoera] public, and the test and its results were not vended by Ziff Davis.
*MS Office 97, Small Busineis Edition Plus includes MS Word 97, Excel 97,
Publisher 97. Automap Streets, Encaria* 96 and Outlook'“ 97.
**MMX Technology~Enhanced Software Bundle includes Pod'T Eraser’^-~ Turn
About, The Ultimate Human Body Version 2.0, and The Third Dimension'7
Professional Systems^
PS-133
i Intel 133MHz Pentium Processw
I 16MB Synchronous DRAM
I 256K Pipelined Burst Cache
I CrystalScan500 .28dp Monitor
(13.9" viewable area)
I 2MB SGRAM. 3-D 64-Bit PCI Graphics
I 1.2GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive
I 12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
I Mini Tower Case
I 104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse
I MS Windows 95
I MS Office 97. SBE PIiLs*
> Gateway Gold S^ce & Su^rt for
Desktop PCs
$1499 Business Lease' $55/mo.
PS- 166
Intel 166MHz Pentium Processor ■
with MMX Technology
24MB Synchronous DRAM ■
256K Pipelined Burst Cache ■
CrystalScan700 .28dp Monitor i
(15.9" viewable area)
2MB SGRAM, 3-D 64-Bit PCI Graphics i
2.5GB Urns EIDE Hard Drive ■
12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives ■
Mini Tower (I^e ■
104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse ■
MS Windows 95 ■
MS Office 97, SBE Plus* ■
Gateway Gold Smice & Support for ■
Desktop PCs
$1999 Business Lease' S74/mo.
PS-200
Intel 200MHz Pentium Processor i
with MMX Technology i
32MB Sychronous DRAM i
512K Pipelined Burst Cache i
Crystalian700 .28dp Monitor
(15.9" viewable area) i
2MB SGRAM. 3-D 64-Bit PCI Graphics
2.5GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive ■
I2X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives i
Mini Tower Case i
104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse ■
MS Windows 95 i
MS Office 97. SBE Plus* i
Gateway Gold Service & Support for <
Desktop PCs
$2299 Business Lease’ $85/mo.
G6-200
Intel 200MHz Pentium Pro Processor
32MB EDO DRAM
256K Internal Cache
Vivitron*700 .26dp Monitor
(15.9" viewable area)
STB ViRGE/VX 4MB, 3-D 64-Bit
PCI Graphics
3.8GB 11ms EIDE Hard Drive
12X CD-ROM/3.5" Diskette Drives
Tower Case
104* Keyboard & MS IntelliMouse
MS Windows 95
MS Office 97, SBE Plus*
Gateway Gold Service & Sui^rt for
Desktop PCs
$2599 Business Lease' $96/mo.
Cc
]^XTRAS
i^PGRADES
(Available to both existing and new Gateway customers.)
GATEWAySELECT
Our Gateway Select program lets you know you’re
getting software that meets or exceeds our standards for
quality, value and ease of use.
Software
■ Games & Entertainment Pack II Includes Deadlock'';
MechWarrior® 2: Mercenaries”; 9"; Pitfall™; SPQR: The
Empire’s Darkest Hour”; and PC ProPad. $99
■ Kid’s BackPack” III Includes Schoolhouse Rock!”:
Grammar Rock”; Sesame Street: Get Set to Learn®; Math
Blaster® Episode 2: Secret of the Lost City; Irao & The King”;
Putt-Putt® Goes To The Moon”; and Gateway cow-spotted
backpack. $59
■ Finance Pack II ff/.5. SArpmen/Qn/yi Includes Quicken®
Deluxe 6, Quicken Financial Planner” 2, Quicken Family
Lawyer” 7, Quicken Parents’ Guide to Money” and a Turbo
Tax® 96 coupon. $69
Printers & Extras
(Each printer includes cable and ink cartridge.)
■ Canon® BJC®-240 Bubble Jet Printer $189
■ Canon BJC-70 Portable Bubble Jet Printer $299
■ Hewlett®-Packard LaserJet 5L Xtra Laser Printer $399
■ Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 6P Laser Printer $769
■ MS® Sidewinder” 3D Pro Joystick $59
■ APC”Back-UPS®650ProUPS $329
■ Visioneer” PaperPort Vx” $249
Service & Support
Gateway Gold” Premium for Desktop Systems
Extended Three- Year On-Site Agreement’
■ Priority 800 Number For Access to Technical Experts
With system purchase $99
Within current on-site service agreement $129
For our complete line of software and peripherals call
Gateway™ component add-on sales at 800-846-2080.
Sales Hours: 7am-10pm Weekdays (CT).
*On-site service is available lo most locations in the continental United States, Alaska,
Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada after you and your Gateway technician determine an
on-site visit is necessary. On-site service is provided by PC Technology Services, Inc.
On-site is not available for any monitor, mouse, keyboard, or portable sy^em. Write
or call for a fret copy ^ the on-site service agreement.
(Sold only with the purchase of a system.)
Desktop Upgrades
■ Altec” Lansing ACS-251 Subwoofer $75
■ Altec Lansing ACS-410 Dolby® Surround Sound
Speaker System w/ ACS-251 Subwoofer $120
( upgrade from PCs that include Altec ACS-41 speakers)
■ CD-Recordable Drive $429
4X read/2X write recordable CD drive with SCSI
controller, CD Creator 2 for MS Windows® and three
media disks.
■ Iomega® Ditto” 3200 Internal Tape
Backup Unit $199
3200MB with compression, nominal 1600MB
■ Iomega Internal Zip” 100MB Drive $139
(includes three tOOMB cartridges)
■ Iomega External Zip 100MB Drive $199
(before $50 manufacturers rebate)
■ lomegajaz® 1GB Drive $429
(includes SCSI controller and IGB cartridge)
■ MS Windows NT® 4.0 Upgrade $99
(upgrade from PCs that include MS Windows 95)
Portable PC Upgrades
■ Gateway Solo” Mini Docking Bar $199
■ 28.8 PCMCIA Data/14.4 Fax Modem $200
■ Gateway Solo 2100 upgrade from an 11.3" Dual Scan to an
12. 1" Active Matrix SVGA color display $530
Destination™ Big Screen PC Upgrades
■ harman/kardon® High-Fidelity Sound System
Seven-piece Dolby Pro Logic® Surround Sound speaker
system including AVR-10 audio/video receiver with remote,
subwoofer, center channel, and four satellites for the
ultimate multimedia audio experience. $699
liie Dakota Keykeeper is
Gateway 2000 Security
Guard. Ed Redeuius.
Thanks f(K freezing your
“key-ster” off fw^ us during
this photo shoot. Ed.
I
// n
► - J ,L- 1_.-.' "A
iiiu IX giM ujnrnu m leir i/uiiness. —
800 - 555-2094
www.gw2k.com
610 Gateway Drive • P.O. Box 2000 • N. Sioux City, SO 57049-2000 • Phone 605-232-2000 • TDD 800-846-1778 • Fax 605-232-2023 • FaxBack 800-846-4526 • lolemational FaxBack Access 605-232-2561
Component Add-On Sales 800-846-2080 • Sales Hours: 7am-10pm Wedidays. 9am-5pm Saturdays & Sundays (CT)
0 1997 Gateway 2000. Inc. GATEWAY 2000, CrystalScan, Uack-and-white spot design. Hdd Mouse. '*G'' logo. TdePath. Vivitron and “You've got a friend io the business'' slogan are rcgistoed
trademarks, and Destination, EZ Pad, Family PC, GATEWAY, Gateway Gold. Kid's BackPack and Gateway Solo are trademarks of Gateway 2000. Inc. The Intel Inside Logo, Intel and Pentium are registered
trademarks and MMX is a trademark of Intel Corporation. Winstoneisaregi5leredtrademaikof2^-DavisPublishiogC}ompany. ViRGE is a trademark of S3. All other brands and product names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. All (uices and coofiguratiotts are subject to change vritboul notice or obligalkm. Prices do not include shipping w applicable sales tax. Many
(gateway 2000 products art custom engineered to Gateway 2000 specifications, which may vary from the retail versions of the strftware and/or hardware io functicmality, performance or compatibility.
"Financing available on approved credit issued and administered by MBNA America*Bank. N.A. Payments based mi 36-mooth term at 14.9% Annual Percentage Rale. 'Leasing arranged by independent
leasing companies to qualified commercial customers. Lease payments based on 36-month term. Lew terms subject to change without nobn or obUgatkm.
Copyrighted material
$40 REBATE!
LimtedTime Offer 2/2ffl7-3«9m
Buy an x2 upgradable
Sportster 33.i modem now. get S40
back by mail from U.S. Robotics!
ISee store for detaitsi
x2 Downloads Nearly Twice As Fast
Introducing x2 Technology from
U.S. Robotics. A revolutionary break-
through in analog modem design that
lets you download at nearly twice the
speed of today's 28.8 modems.
By cutting the time you spend
waiting for downloads virtually in
half, x2 fundamentally changes the
face of online communication.
x2 Technology Is Available Today
Any Sportster 33.6 modem pur-
chased after August 15, 1996 is soft-
ware upgradable to x2. Or you can
find the Sportster that's right for you,
with x2 capabilities already built in,
on store shelves today.
Either way, you can start down-
loading nearly twice as fast with more
than icxD Internet service providers
supporting x2 Technology.
Building a Standard for 56 Kbps
U.S. Robotics has a long history of
supporting international communica-
tions standards. And, while the ITU-T
committee has not yet recommended
a standard for 56 Kbps modems, we
iifiohirtics'
OT9M U.S KoboMt All nghitrriervni. US Robolits. the USKoboliet hgo and Spnruitr art rrqtsiered tntdemarii and m 2 and the t2 logo art trade-
marks of US Hobolks Product ipmfiealions fubfecl ta change wilhoul nolite. ContacS your US. Xo6mic> rrpretenialivt for currms product information.
Copyrighted material
n
.a Sportster* with x2’
could download
PO
30
^0
sc-
are working closely with them to create
one. Whatever standard is eventually
established, U.S. Robotics will offer
the easiest possible upgrade path.
Supported By Industry Leaders
x2 is already being supported by
major chipset makers and original
equipment manufacturers, as well as
online services with more than 16
million subscribers. With widespread
acceptance and deployment from such
industry leaders as America Online,
CompuServe and NETCOM, it’s easy
to see why x2 is setting the pace for
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x2: The Right Choice For Speed
U.S. Robotics connects more
people online than anyone else. Now,
with x2 Technology we offer one
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To learn more about x2, visit us at
www.usr.com/x 2 or give us a call at
1 800-525-USRl.
And don’t wait a minute longer
than necessary.
aMUiotlcs
TICNNOLOttY.
A
sV
MCI
•V
Iprodigy
internst
'■aierial
First Looks
PERIPHERALS
The Big Easies
These ttoo 230MB portable magneto-optical drives make
notebook data more portable. — By Bruce Brown
E ven as hard disks get bigger
and faster, the twin problems
of moving large files and
backing up a notebook's contents
onto removable media remain.
Fujitsu Computer Products and
Olympus America wade in with
similar — though far from identi-
cal — portable magneto-optical
disk drives that each can hold
230MB on 3.5-inch cartridges.
The $450 Fujitsu DynaMO
230 PC Card Drive connects with
your system through its Type II
PC Card; the $390 Olympus
SYS.230 Universal plugs in to ei-
ther a SCSI or parallel port, mak-
ing it suitable for moving data be-
tween desktop computers as well
as between PCs and notebooks.
We put these mini-MO drives
through their paces with a Pen-
tium/133 Micron TransPort run-
ning Windows 95. Though the
DynaMO is smaller and lighter,
and can run on battery power, the
SYS.230 is less expensive and
more versatile, and it set the pace
in terms of performance.
Fujitsu Computer Products of
America Inc.
DynaMO 230 PC
Card Drive
Small, light and ready for the
road, the Fujitsu DynaMO 230
PC Card Drive, from Fujitsu
Computer Products of America,
fits a lot of data into a small space.
Installing the 1- by 4.3- by 6.5-
inch DynaMO entails plugging its
Type II PC Card into your note-
book and restarting the system.
The first time you use
the DynaMO, you
have to spend a few
minutes loading the
drivers. But after that.
Microsoft Window 95
consistently recog-
nized and correctly
configured the Dyna-
MO every time. The
Fujitsu drive and in-
cluded AC adapter
weigh 1.7 pounds,
which drops to 1.4
pounds when the power supply is
replaced with four AA cells.
Though you can run the
DynaMO on batteries, you prob-
ably won’t want to often, because
battery life was disappointing.
With standard alkaline batteries
(which aren't recommended by
Fujitsu), the DynaMO can run
for about 10 minutes of continu-
ous operation: with rechargeable
nickel cadmium or nickel hydride
batteries (not included), you can
run the DynaMO for 35 and 55
minutes, respectively.
In addition to its poweroptions,
the DynaMO can read from and
write to 128MB magneto-optical
media. The DynaMO's optical
disk s rotational rate is 2,700 rpm.
and it has a 128K data cache,
which add up to an average seek
lime of 65 ms and a
maximum 1.6-MBps
sustained data-trans-
ferrate.
During testing, the
DynaMO was slower
than the SYS.230: It
took 8 minutes, 46
seconds to copy
68.9MB of data,
which was 2 min-
utes, 25 seconds
more than the SYS-
.230 took. Using the Windows 95
Backup utility, the DynaMOcom-
pressed the same data to 36.3MB
in 20 minutes. 45 seconds.
Eminently portable, the
DynaMO is an excellent choice
for field work.
DynaMO 230 PC Card Drive. Street
price: $450. Requires: SMB
RAM, 1MB hard disk space,
Type 1 1 PC Card slot; DOS 4.0 or
later, or Microsoft Windows 3jc,
Windows 95. or Windows NT.
Fujitsu Computer Products of
America Inc., San Jose. CA: 800-
626-4686. 408-432-6333; www
.fcpa.com. Circle 418 on reader
service card.
Olvmpm America
SYS.230 SCSI Universal
Weighing in at 2.6 pounds, the
1.8- by 5.4-by 7.5-inch SYS.230
Universal, from Olympus Amer-
ica. is larger and heavier than the
DynaMO but more than makes
up for it with top-flight perfor-
mance and flexibility.
The SYS.230's ability to con-
nect via either a parallel or SCSI
port makes it the better choice of
these two drives if you want to
use it with both desktop and
notebook computers. In addi-
tion, the SYS.230 spins faster
(4,200 rpm versus 2,700 rpm) and
it has twice the cache (256K ver-
sus 128K ) of the DynaMO.
These factors result in a sus-
tained data-transfer rate of up to
2.6 MBps and an average seek
time of under 17 ms.
Copying the same 68.9MB of
files as the DynaMO took 6 min-
utes, 21 seconds; the Backup test
took 8 minutes, 25 seconds. In ad-
dition to speedy operation, the
S YS230 also lets you daisy-chain
up to 7 drives or other SCSI de-
vices. even when attached to a
computer's parallel port.
What it sacrifices in weight and
size, the SYS.230 makes up for
with performance, a flexible inter-
face, and an affordable price tag.
SYS230 Universal. Street price;
$390. Requires: 4MB RAM.
2MB hard disk space; SCSI or
parallel port; DOS 5.0 or later, or
Microsoft Windows 3 jt, Win-
dows 95, or Windows NT. Olym-
pus America, Melville, NY; 800-
347-4027, 516-844-5000; www
.olympusamerica.com. Circle419
on reader service card.
POWER MAD: y'ou can run the DynaMO on
battery power, but you won 't get very far.
PERFORMANCE TESTS
MO Disk Drives
r j " . 1 The Olympus SYS.230 Universal handily out-
i ^ “ performed the Fujitsu DynaMO 230 PC Card
vmi'fi Drive, probably because the SYS. 2.30 has a
larger cache and faster rotation speed.
We tested these portable magneto-optical drives with a
Pentium/133 .Micron Transport notebook with 4HMB of
RAM and a 1 .3GB hard disk, running Microsoft Windows
95. Prior to each lest, we defragmented the notebook s hard
disk: we then used either the Windows 95 Explorer (File
Copy lest) or the Backup utility (File Backup test) to move
68.9MB of data to a cleanly formatted 2.30MB cartridge.
Minutes seconds
File Copy
File Backup
Fujitsu DynaMO 230
8.46
■ 2045
Olympus SYS.230
6.21 ■■■■1
8 25
< BETTER
< BETTER
FAST AND FLEXIRLE: The SYS.230 can run on
a SCSI or parallel port, and it is fast.
52 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted maienal
H fM tkMk this a u f*r • ml Mvit. yw My h* (m wck tiM M wtrli. 61997 MifMc. Iw. All ri|li(i rtstn*9. Adamite, lb« Adaplie left tad (tfliM in kidnarks d
Adifttc. be. iviHCk My ki rtfimnd it um jiriidietiMt. WiideM IfT it i indeairk el Mierttell Ctrpenliet. Dud nder lieeau. All edwi tndeMrfct Mtif It tbtir ruftclrn twttn.
First Looks
ELECTRONIC IMAGING
Acrobat’s High-Wire Act improves
Adobes portable document creator adds tools. — By Edward Mendehon
A dobe’s Portable Document
Format (.PDF) is the indus-
try standard for electronic
documents. Adobe Acrobat 3.0
builds .PDF files from any Mi-
crosoft Windows application
and — via your scan-
ner — from any printed
page. Ifyoujust wantto
view existing .PDF files,
go to Adobe^ Web site
and download the free
Aaobat Reader. But if
you want to create,
modify, or annotate
.PDF files, or add links
to them, get the $295
Acrobat 3.0 package.
Acrobat 3.0 com-
bines the separate basic
and professional Acro-
bat packages of previ-
ous versions. A Win-
dows driver lets you
print from Windows applications
to .PDF files, and Distiller soft-
ware lets you create .PDF files
from PostScript output. A plug-
in scanning module for the main
Acrobat program lets you create
.PDF files by scanning in printed
pages. And a second module.
Acrobat Capture, uses OCR
technology to convert scanned
pages to .PDF files.
In comparison with such rival
electronic formats as Corel
WordPerfect's Envoy and Tum-
bleweed Software’s Publishing
Essentials, .PDF files are slow
both to display and search. But
.PDF files can be made and
viewed on virtually all plat-
forms — including all major fla-
vors of Unix.
Acrobat Exchange — where
you modify and index .PDF files
created by the Acrobat printer
driver — includes new features
that allow faster access to .PDF
files from your disk and, when
viewed across the Internet,
through the Acrobat plug-in.
When you check Optimize in the
Save As dialog box. Exchange
creates files that are automatical-
ly downloaded over the Web as
each page is requested rather
than as a single, large file. Opti-
mization also eliminates dupli-
ELECTRONIC BOOKMARER: With a mouse click, you can
use Adobe Acrobat to lie disconnected text together,
so that readers can follow the flow.
cate background objects and re-
places them with pointers to
single instances in the file. On our
tests, .PDF files without repeated
background images or text were
actually enlarged slightly when
optimized; files with repeated
graphic elements can be reduced
to a fraction of their original size.
The Exchange program can
create thumbnail images for nav-
igation in a .PDF file. And you
can manually add outline-style
bookmarks and internal and ex-
ternal links to .PDF
files and mark them
to create connected
articles, which lead
your readers through
documents. Ex-
change also lets you
insert, delete, and ro-
tate pages.
Most electronic
document software
won’t let you modify
files after you print
them from your ap-
plications, but Acro-
bat’s Touch-Up tool
lets you alter con-
tent, typeface, and
point size on a line-by-line
basis — provided that your sys-
tem has the correct fonts. Other
tools in Exchange let you attach
sticky notes or video clips with a
few mouse clicks
Both Acrobat Exchange and
the free Acrobat Reader have
a built-in text-search feature
that can be frustratingly slow.
But a file-indexing plug-in for
Exchange renders them almost
instantaneously: a free plug-in
for Reader lets users search ex-
isting indexes but not create
new ones.
The Acrobat Capture plug-in
uses an extremely accurate
OCR engine to convert graphics
files into searchable text-based
.PDF files. When the OCR en-
gine is uncertain, the program
displays the text as graphic im-
ages, which you can replace with
text by using the Touch-Up
plug-in. To save time, you can
leave the graphic images in the
.PDF files. These features make
Adobe Acrobat the only soft-
ware in this category suitable for
high-volume, batch-processed
OCR work.
With its Web-optimized files
and high-value add-ins, Adobe
Acrobat makes .PDF the in-
dustry-standard format for
electronic documents.
Adobe Acrobat 3.0. List price: $295.
Requires: 16MB RAM. 40MB
hard disk space. Microsoft Win-
dows 3.1 or later, Wmdows 95, or
Windows NT 3.51 or later.
Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose,
CA; 800-272-3623; www.adobe
.com/acrobat. Circle 41 7 on read-
er service card.
Acrobat Paper Clips and Pushpins
A dobe Acrobat 3.0
comes loaded with
versatile plug-ins,
but third-party vendors
have stepped in to
enhance .PDFs. We
tested two Acrobat
Exchange plug-ins —
Aerial and Re:Maiic —
from Software Partners
(415-428-0160, www
.buckaroo.com or
www.ambia.com).
Aerial adds navigation tools called “paper
clips,” which resemble browser bookmarks
and point to any page in a .PDF file. A paper
clip attached to a .PDF file anywhere on your
di^ is accessible from a single list of all paper
clips. Another tool in the
package is a converter
that exports .PDF files in
rich-text format (.RTF),
which is readable by all
word processors.
Re:Mark lets you
attach any file to a .PDF
document and uses a
pushpin icon that
launches or detaches the
file. You can use your
mouse to draw sketches and handwritten
comments on .PDF files, and you can add
underlining and highlighting to the marked
text, with pop-up comments attached. The
package includes the same .RTF converter
included in Aerial . — EM
54 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
MI0UO rAKTNBR
Smithsionian
Your network's stopped ftj.vterJ
up. Your u.sers are fru,strated.
Time to move to lOOMbps.
Intel offers a complete Fast
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We now have lOOMbps hubs,
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really pump the information through your
019% Intel Corpmlion. All other iradcmotis are the pn>peiiy of cheir
f_ network. In fact, our
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mented by LANQuest Labs. Plus,
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P embedded in our award-winning
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Check out our page on the Intel Web site
rCHWcUvc hoklcr>
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And get your network flowing again.
iny.
Copyrighted material
THE
HUMAN E
^fso £n own as.
“the piercinb gaze of sjg^uti
NARROWED AS IT SEARCHES FOR THE DE
DESIGN FLAWS SO COMMONLY FOUND IN TF
LOGICAL ERA, THE EYE HAS ALSO BEEN KNOWN
WIDE OPEN WHEN IT SEES A BETTER WAY.
FUJITSU
I
FUJITSU PC CORPORATION
-- — - -- Built for Humans.
T .
JLhe LifeBook'“ 500 and 600 Series. Notebooks perfectly designed for
a manic, mobile world. A process that involved a close look at the way a
notebook should leel, the way it travels, adapts, and, ot course, performs.
The LifeBook 500 Series
comes standard with
CD-ROMf i 6-bit sound,
co/or SVGA video and a
multi-function bay for
endless expandability.
Designed for
Microsoft *
Windows*95
UtcBook is a iradrmark of Fujiisu PC Corporation, and Fujitsu .ind iFic Fujitsu logo air tnidvmarks nl Fujitsu l.td. Thr Inirl Inside laign and Pentium
are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. .NTicrosoft. Windows, and the Windows logo arc registered trademarks of ^\ir^oso^l Corporation.
.Ml other trademarks or registered trademarks are pni{ieny of their res|>CL-iivc companies. 019% Fujitsu PC Corporation. .Ml rights resers-cd.
•Preliininar\' measurement
Copyrighted me-
OUR NOTEBOOKS AS SEEN
FROM A HOLY COW PERSPECTIVE.
Pentium'
Iprocessor
The
LifeBook
600 Series
0 Is this a 12.1
active-matrix eolo^
800x600 resolution screen?
Or am I blind with joy?
;VGA
Look! a
•4^2* lb. travel light
notebook. yVait! Attach
^H^^nbancement unit and it's
a muitimetUa-powerhouse.
Anfi^io'dy stop us.
MntF the option of 2 long-lasting
Kmiimio^h batteries and the
f^mpKtmensive power panel
ra/^o^Sie-fly tweaking,
yo^Arision of battery
heaven is now In place.
our notebooks are
e saw a
nee
second batteries, second bard drives, available 28.8
fax/modems, CD-ROM
capabilities, docking options and a full range of the latest Intel Pentium® processors.
ut we also paid attention to the outside of our notebooks. An ergonomic form.
A smooth feel. A really cool color. Sure, looks aren’t everything. But when you
combine it with performance, the result is something to behold.
FUJITSU PC CORPORATION. For more info, call 1-888-4-ON-THE-GO, ext. 9509,
visit www.fujitsu-pc.com or get a QuikFacts fax at i-800-936-5209.
CIRCLE 1 14 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCMAG.COM/PtoductUnk
^yrighted material
Dhe
HUMAN
HAND
ALSO KNOW^N AS:
The
“CRUSHED”
Able to inflict massive amounts
of damage when confronted
with a poorly designed note-
book. In extreme cases, it is
quite capable of putting a hole
in the wall.
Fujfrsu
FUJITSU PC CORPORATION
:Built /or H
u m a n s. .
Every LifcBook proJuct
must pass the 18,000
open and dose test.
Or it’s not a LifeBook.
Pentium'”
l>nocfttoR
A NOTEBOOK WITH SOME
PRETTY COOL TOUCHES.
J^ntroducing the Lifebook™ 500 Series. A
hands-on kind of machine to make your daily
experience with a notebook personal and
productive, not difficult and really annoying.
status indicator for access to important
operating information. Available internal 28.8
fax/modem with pre-installed "The Internet
Starts Here" software suite. Superb color
SVGA video that’s easy on the eyes. A new
ergonomic design because the way a notebook
looks and feels is important too.
The
LffeBook
500
Series.
0 With the MULTI-FUNCTION BAY, you
always hav« a choice. Second battery?
Second hard drive? Or maybe a snack
for later?
A PALM REST for comfort. A newly
designed keyboard for convenience— like
giving those darn arrow keys some space.
^ A really smooth shade of midnight blue
to CALM you when you realize you're
overworked and underpaid.
A
d yes, it’s multimedia equipped, powerful and expandable. So you get all the
big things you need in a notebook. With all the little details you want.
6x CD-ROM, 16-bit sound
and full-motion video
support are standard.
llOMHx. l33MHx or ISOMHx
Intel Pentium” processors are
powerful options.
FUJITSU PC CORPORATION. For more info, call 1-888-4-ON-THE-GO, ext. 6509,
visit www.fujitsu-pc.com or get a QuikFacts fax at 1-800-936-5209.
CIRCLE 224 ON READER SERVCE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCMAQ.COfM>rodiicUJnk
Designed for
LifeBook is a trademark of Fujitsu PC Corporation, and Fujitsu and the Fujiuu logo arc trademarks of Fujiuu Ltd. The Intel Inside Logo and Pentium are re^iered MlCfOSOft*
trademarks of Intel Corporation. .MicroaoFl, Windows, and the Windows logo are regisiercd trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks or registered jiru:
trademarks are property of their respective companies. 01996 Fujitsu PC Corporation. All rights re s er v ed. WinOOWs
First Looks
SCANNERS
Worth a Thousand Pixels— at Least
These snapshot scanners let you quickly digitize small photo prints, but don't expect
perfection. — By Daniel Grotta and Sally Wiener Grotta
I f you’re up to your ears in
photo prints, you might want
to consider adding an inexpen-
sive snapshot scanner to your PC.
Epson America’s $199 Photo-
Plus, Eastman Kodak’s $199
Snapshot Photo Scanner 1, and
Polaroid Corp.’s $250 PhotoPad
connect via parallel ports and arc
surprisingly easy to operate.
All three scanners use Data-
storm's scanning engine, so scan
times were comparable. Each
fits easily on your desktop,
digitizes originals of up to 4 inch-
es wide, saves images in any of
a number of popular bitmap for-
mats, and helps get your snap-
shots from those
shoe boxes in-
to your PC. Though
the PhotoPlus and
Snapshot Photo
Scanner 1 are limited
to a top resolution of
200 pixels per inch
(ppi), the PhotoPad
can scan color at
twice that level.
All three of these
mini-scanners pro-
duced pronounced
banding on a vari-
ety of test scans, so
they will probably remain in the
realm of home PC users.
Epson America Inc.
PhotoPlus
The most versatile of these
three mini-scanners, the Photo-
Plus, from Epson America, sup-
piorts the widest range of scan
modes and includes software for
digitizing business cards.
To get going, select color,
black-and-white, or business-
card mode and indicate whether
you want portrait or landscape.
Then set the snapshot dimen-
sions (up to 4.1- by 10-inch prints)
and the desired resolution (from
50 to 200 ppi for color and up to
400 ppi for monochrome).
After the scan, you can adjust
brightness and saturation with
slider controls while you com-
pare before and after versions.
You can also apply Epson’s
ColorTrue Enhancements to op-
timize picture quality.
Epson includes Create Cool
Stuff Fun Pak, which has a basic
set of image-editing tools and fil-
ters as well as templates for creat-
ing invitations, signs, screen
savers, greeting cards, and even
refiigerator magnets. The includ-
ed Oarex CardScan SC is a simple
but effective business-card scan-
ning utility and database. Using
CardScan may try your patience
though, because the PhotoPlus
waits 30 seconds between scans.
The PhotoPlusTs scanning head
is removable, so you can scan flat
surfaces, such as book pages. The
removable head is also easier to
clean and lets you clear the sys-
tem's optical element. PhotoPlus
scans were generally dark with
oversaturated colors, although
most flaws were correctable.
Quick and easy, the Photo-
Plus does it ail, from business
cards to greeting cards.
PhotoPlus. List price; $199. Re-
quires: SMB RAM, 50MB hard
disk space, parallel port; Mi-
crosoft Windows 3.1 or Win-
dows 95. Epson America Inc.,
Torrance, CA; 800-463-7766,
310-782-0770; www.epson.com.
Circle 412 on reader service card.
Eastman Kodak Co.
Snapshot Photo
Scanner 1
Eastman Kodak Co.’s Snapshot
Photo Scanner 1 (SPSl) man-
ages to automate just enough
functions to make its setup and
use just about foolproof.
The included CD-ROM pro-
vides easy step-by-step instruc-
tions. The scanning head is not re-
movable. althou^ it can be raised
for cleaning and clearing jams.
The print dimensions are set au-
tomatically, and the SPSl scans 4-
by 1 1.5-inch panorama prints but
operates at only 200 ppi.
You can begin scanning after
you set the JPEG image com-
pression level, choose metric or
English measurements, and dis-
play either the step-by-step or the
expert scanning options. Once an
image is scanned, you can rotate
or trim it, adjust the brightness
and contrast, or click on SmartFix
for automatic adjustments. The
before and after windows can
zoom in on details. SPSl gives
users the option of transferring
an image directly to PhotoEn-
hancer or Kai’s Power GOO —
both of which are included — or
saving it in a variety of formats.
Though images were general-
ly good, SPSl^ scans tended to
produce unrealistic colors, and
the mechanism — while the qui-
etest of the three — caused a very
slight elongation of the image.
The Snapshot Photo Scanner
1 is for those who need instant
scans with few adjustments.
Snapshot Photo Scanner 1. List
price; $199. Requires: SMB
RAM, 2MB hard disk space,
Microsoft Windows 95. East-
man Kodak Co., Rochester, NY;
800-235-6235; www.kodak.com.
Circle 413 on reader service card.
Polaroid Corp.
PhotoPad
The most expensive of these
three scanners. Polaroid’s $250
PhotoPad trades scan area and
software for resolution.
The PhotoPad can scan origi-
nals up to 4- by 6-inches only, but
it does so at up to 400 ppi. The
system produces 24-bit color or
256 color scans, and the device
comes with a calibration target
for accurately setting the scan-
ner's default values. On the
downside, the PhotoPad’s scan-
ning head is not removable, and
scanning tools are limited to
brightness adjustments and Po-
laroid’s color-correction feature,
SuperColor.
Despite its Spartan nature, the
PhotoPad gave us the best scans
and the truest colors of the three.
At full resolution, it turned a 4-
by 6-inch snapshot into a 9.8MB
file (compared to 1 .9MB for the
PhotoPlus and 2.6MB for the
SPSl), which translated into
greater detail in the image.
For scanning — and little
else — PhotoPad does the trick.
PhotoPad. Street price: $250. Re-
quires; SMB RAM, SMB hard
disk space; Microsoft Windows
3.1 or Windows 95. Polaroid
Corp., Cambridge. MA; 8(X)-343-
5000; www.jK)laroid.com. Circle
4I4on reader service card
60 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25,1997
Copyrighted matena!
You can tell a lot
about a person's hard drive
oh, ihe things your hard drive says about you. Your life's on it, yet you rarely give it a
second thou^it. Unless you were to, say, lose everything on it. Then it gets really interesting.
Not to worry. With a Western Digital drive, your life's information is absolutely safe.
We know your information — whether it's all work and no play or any combination of
the two — is your information. You surround yourself with it. And you want it stored in
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Western Digital makes the world's most recommended hard drives. We offer a whole
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61996 We$t«rn Digital Corporation.
Western
PUT YOUR LIFE ON IT. dK Digital
CIRCLE 115 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Copyrighted material
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About Our Name: Saint Anthony Guide
ILECTRONICf
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EDITORS'
CHOICE.
PubruoRy 20, 1 996
CIRCLE 309 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCIMAG.COM/ProductUnk
Copyrighted material
First Looks
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Point and Shoot for PCs
These three cameras advance the state of the art for digital
shutterbugs. — By Daniel Grotta and Sally Wiener Grotta
U ntil recently, most entry-
level digital cameras were
boxy affairs with limited
features that yielded relatively
crude pictures. The latest crop of
filmless cameras — the
$600 Fujix DS-7, the
$900 Olympus D-
300L, and the $1,000
Ricoh RDC-2 — look
and feel more like
point-and-shoot 35-
A bonus is the DS-7^ ability to
time- and date-stamp images and
number them from 1 to 30,000.
These features are especially
valuable if more than one person
uses the camera.
Besides its 1.8-
inch LCD view-
finder. the DS-7
has a video-out
mm cameras and pro-
duce some of the best images
we’ve seen yet.
These digital cameras have
one thing in common: a 1.8-
inch color LCD for ihrough-
the-lens previewing. For sim-
plicity. the Fujix DS-7 steals
the show; just aim it and click
the shutter release. If you
need to control every aspect
of digital photography, the
Ricoh RDC-2 makes more sense.
But for the best image quality
and price/performance ratio, the
Olympus D-300L is our choice.
positioned and easy
stand, and the camera
fortabic in the hand,
seems simple, but we
found ourselves mis-
judging the focus
on close-ups. The DS-
7 uses square rather
than rectangular
pixels, which — com-
bined with a glass
Fujinon lens — pro-
duced crisp, sharp im-
ages. Although the
images were small,
exposures were ac-
curate, and colors
to under- front flap to turn the camera on
feels com- and expose the f2.8 autofocus
Focusing wide-angle lens. Then press the
I T»«ncMt I I Co*9M I
^ itsasssyi
1
were consis-
tently realistic
3>2>1 CONTACT: The
contact sheet for the
Olympus D-300L can
display a group of
thumbnails.
LZS
-a
MfZi
Id
MOVINQ PICTURES; The Fttjix DS-?'.-* inuif'e-inm.s
fer utility cart show thumhiuiiis and large shots.
Fuji Photo Film USA Inc.
FiijlxDS-7
The Fujix DS-7, from Fuji Photo
Film USA, is a modest but so-
phisticated automatic camera
that gives the user just enough
control.
Instead of using autofocus, the
DS-7 has three settings: macro
(3.5 to 5 inches), close up ( 1 .5 to 3
feet), and distance (3 feet to infin-
ity). Although the camera auto-
matically selects the shutter
speed, you must choose either an
open (f2.2 for indoor/low light-
ing) or a nearly closed diaphragm
(fS for outdoor/bri^t light).
The DS-7^ biggest weakness-
es are the absence of a built-in
flash and the lack of exposure
compensation. But the DS-7 has
built-in automatic white balance
for setting the correct color.
port for displaying images on a
TV or for use with a video print-
er. The camera can be pro-
grammed for auto-playback and
for the display of either one
frame or nine frames at a time,
and when in information mode it
can show real-time full-motion
video, still images, or text.
The DS-7 is the first digital
camera to use Toshiba’s 2MB
SmartMedia storage card. Thin-
ner than a credit card and the size
of a matchbook, a SmartMedia
card is smaller than a PC Card,
but at $60 per megabyte
SmartMedia cards are
more expensive. Images
are saved as JPEG files;
they can be acquired by
Windows 95 Explorer and
opened by any image-
editing program.
After a few minutes
spent familiarizing our-
selves M-ith the DS-7, we
were producing excellent
snapshots. The icon-
based controls are well
and well saturated.
The DS-7 reduces the
complexity of digital pho-
tography to a simple aim,
click, and view.
Fujix DS-7. Street price;
$6(H). Requires: SMB
RAM. 10MB hard disk
space; Microsoft Win-
dows 3. 1 or later; serial
port or PC drive. Fuji
Photo Film USA Inc..
Elmsford, NY; 800-378-3854,
914-789-8100. Circle 407 on
reader service card.
Olympus America
Olympus D-300L
At first glance, the small and styl-
ish Olympus D-300L, from
Olympus America, looks and
feels much like a conventional
35-mm point-and-shoot camera,
but it is a digital workhorse.
Getting started with the
D-300L is easy: Just open the
large, silver
shutter release to take a picture.
The optical viewfinder has cross
hairs for centering the image and
black frame lines for close-ups.
You can use the LCD panel for
more precise framing and posi-
tioning. The camera has five but-
tons and a control panel for ad-
justing image quality, flash, and
flash mode, as well as for trigger-
ing the self-timer, locking the
focus, and deleting the last fr^e.
The D-300L is one of the few
digital cameras with red-eye re-
duction. About a second before
exposure, the camera fires a se-
ries of rapid preflashes causing
the subject’s pupils to shrink.
With 6MB of built-in RAM, the
D-300L can hold from 30 to 120
images, depending on compres-
sion mode and images resolution
(VGA or XGA); the camera has
no removable memory system.
What makes the Olympus
D-300L our choice is its superb
NINE LIVES: From left to right, output samples of the Fujix DS-7, Ricoh
RDC-2, and Olympus D-300L.
64 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrightt-i
image quality. At 1,024 by 768
pixels — the highest restilution of
any entry-level digital camera —
the D-300L’s images have greater
depth and detail than those of
both the RDC-2 and the DS-7.
And the D-3(K)L can accurately
record light and shadow over a
range of seven f-stops. more than
what most color film can do.
If you want nothing short
of the best images for the money,
the Olympus D-300L is for you.
Olympiis D-300L Street price: $900.
Requires: I6MB RAM. 40MB
hard disk space: Microsoft Win-
dows 3.1 or later; serial port.
Olympus America Inc., Melville,
NY; 800-622-6372, 516-844-5000;
www.oIympus.com. Circle 408 on
reader service card.
Ricoh Consumer Products
Ricoh RDC-2
The Ricoh RDC-2, from Ricoh
Consumer Products, is as cx)mp!i-
caled as the Fujix DS-7 is simple.
With the LCD viewer attached,
the camera has a total of 19 but-
tons, knobs, and levers, plus a
separate control panel, all of
which adds up to an abundance
of options, features, and controls.
Shooting with the RDC-2 in-
volves shifting the on/off switch,
selecting image quality with the
Personal Intelligent Communica-
tor, lining up the shot — on the
1 .8-inch LCD panel or the optical
viewfinder — flicking the wide-
angle/ standard bifocal lens
switch for correct framing, and
pushing the shutter button.
There are several adjustable
settings: picture quality, still
images, audio only, audio with
still images, continuous shoot-
Source; |RDC-2 Comera
u 1
Serial Port |- •'*
J
C Add la Album |Ncw Album
Open Imapee on Oeeklop
Save Images as jJPEG {* JPG|
“3.
ON THE FLY: The Twain driver for
the Ricoh RDC-2 can convert
files to several popular formats.
ing — as fast as 1 frame per sec-
ond and with or without audio
commentary — and text mode.
The camera can also be used
for real-time videoconferenc-
ing, albeit at a slightly choppy
18 frames per second; Ricoh
videoconferencing software is
still under development.
The RDC-2 comes with 2MB
of RAM. enough for 9 high-. 18
standard-,
and 36
economy-
quality im-
ages. It can also accommodate
ATA PC Cards, but because the
RDC-2 uses a proprietary file for-
mat, you have to use the Ricoh
Twain driver to download im-
ages. The autofocus lens can
shoot from as close up as 10 inch-
es, and images can be displayed
on a TV set via a video-out port.
Unlike with the Fujix DS-7
and the Olympus D-300L, the
RDC-2’s $229 LCD viewfind-
er — including a speaker and
volume control — is a snap-on
option. Without the display,
the camera is nearly slim
enough to slip into a shirt
pocket; with it. the RDC-2 can
be unwieldy.
Operating the RDC-2 in other
than single-frame mode was diffi-
cult. To move among the shoot-
ing modes, you have to memo-
rize the commands. Icons are
small, associated words or letters
are hard to read, and button com-
binations are difficult to manage.
In its highesl-quality mode, the
RDC-2 produced sharp, high-
contrast images that were visual-
ly plea.sing, though the color bal-
ance was a bit on the cold side.
Details tended to get lost in low
light, but flash pictures were well
exposed and exhibited excellent
color balance.
The Ricoh RDC-2 produces
plenty of picture-taking possibili-
ties, but the price is complexity.
Ricoh RDC-2. Street price:
$1,000. Requires: SMB RAM.
6MB hard disk space; Mi-
crosoft Windows 3.1 or later;
serial port or PC drive. Ricoh
Consumer Products Group,
Sparks. NV; 8(X)-225-1899. 702-
352-1600; www.ricohcpg.com.
Circle 400 on reader service card.
IMAGE EDITING
Pixel Power
Less is more with Picture
It! — By Luisa Simone
I nstead of emphasizing the cus-
tomizable power tools found
in high-level bitmapped
graphics programs, Microsoft
Picture It! provides a one-size-
fits-all approach for $80 that
should be more than enough for
small-business or personal use.
Picture It! s streamlined inter-
face gets high marks for making
complex image-editing functions
accessible to novices. In lieu of a
complex tt)olbar, the program
has six descriptive buttons,
which provide access to a
menu of basic photo-editing,
design, and output options,
[ij Two helpful features of
Picture It!’s interface are
Filmstrip, for storing multi-
ple images, and the Stack,
which organizes thumbnails
of elements vertically. Re-
arranging layering order is
simple: You grab a thumb-
nail and drag it up or
down in the Stack.
Picture It!'s tools work
well: Smart Selection, for
example, lets you click at
key positions along an ob-
ject’s edge. And instruc-
tions walk you through the
process of modifying or
correcting selection areas.
But the toolset is small.
It provides the essential
tools for correcting com-
mon photographic prob-
lems (red eye, color casts,
and blurry focus) and
collaging pictures. If you
want painting tools or special-ef-
fects filters, you have to look to
such entry-level programs as
Adobe PhotoDeluxe and Fractal
Design Dabbler.
Picture It! focuses on three
types of projects: cards, calen-
dars. and collages. But the pro-
gram’s most exciting aspects
are its input and output capa-
bilities. In addition to using im-
ages from digital cameras and
scanners, and such standard file
formats as JPEG and TIFF,
users can have conventional
film developed using the
MSn-SHOT: Kodak C 'mum Creation
templates allow you to pop your photos
from the storage area along the bottom
of the screen into a ready-made collage.
Kodak Image Magic System.
In addition to outputting to
color printers, digital slides,
and the standard file formats,
users can transmit completed
projects to Kodak's Web site
{www.kodak.com) and order
high-quality photographs at
reasonable prices.
Microsoft Picture h! List price:
$80. Requires: 16MB RAM,
50MB hard disk space. Mi-
crosoft Windows 95. Microsoft
Corp.. Redmond, WA; 206-882-
8080; www.microsoft.com. Cir-
cle 406 on reader service card.
MARCH IS. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 66
aam
First Looks
UTILITIES
Divvying Up Disks
One-Stop partitioning utilities help to streamline todays
huge hard disks, — By Neil J Rubenking
32-bit FAT32 system, but a
FAT32 partition isn't accessible
under earlier versions of Win-
dows 95. PartitionMagic works
with both FAT16 and FAT32
partitions and allow s nondestruc-
tive conversion
between them;
Partition-It*s
FAT32 wasn’t
ready for testing.
NTFS and
HPFS (used by
Windows NT
and OS/2, re-
spectively) are
substantial im-
provements over
the FAT system. PartitionMagic is
unique in its ability to aeate. for-
mat. and resize these partitions. It
also offers a one-way nondestruc-
tive conversion from FAT to
HPFS; Partition-It doesn’t.
Partition-It is a native Win-
dows 95 application. (A Windows
the time you read this.) For criti-
cal operations, however, Parti-
tion-lt drops to DOS and restarts
Windows 95 when finished. By
contrast, PartitionMagic looks
H ard disks get larger and
larger, prices get lower and
lower, but the file allocation
table (FAT) system refuses to
die. Two of the latest disk-par-
titioning packages — Quarter-
deck Corp.'s $50 Partition-It and
PowerOuest Corp.ls $69.95 Parli-
tionMagic 3.02 — let you create,
delete, resize, and move FAT-
based partitions.
To make efficient use of disk
space and allow the use of multi-
ple file systems on a single PC.
large disks need to be parti-
tioned. In a FAT system used by
DOS. Microsoft Windows 3 j:, or
Wmdows 95, disk space for each
file is allocated in clusters. The
bigger the partition, the bigger
the cluster and the greater the
space wasted. A 1. 6GB disk can
waste hundreds of megabytes,
but dividing it into two 800MB
partitions cuts the cluster size and
waste by half.
The newest PCs come with the
applications from one partition
to another and adjust all perti-
nent system-file references.
Partition-It^ true Windows in-
terface gives it a slight edge in
ease of use, but if you need
support for NTFS or HPFS
partitions or need a utility
that runs under DOS or
OS/2, get PartitionMagic.
Partition-It 1.0. Street price;
$50. Requires; SMB RAM.
6MB hard disk space, Mi-
crtisoft Windows 3-r or Wm-
dows 95. Quarterdeck
ONE SIZE FITS »LL Corp., Marina
Pariilion-Il'.s
dialog box lets you
adjust a partition s
size (left).
PartitionMagic
lets you control
the size of a FAT-
based partition
(above}.
3jc version should be available by
like a Windows 95 application,
but it actually runs in DOS mode;
PartitionMagic also runs under
Windows 3 j:, OS/2, and DOS.
Both utilities update system
references when, for example,
D; drive becomes E; drive, but
Partition-It does so automatical-
ly. Both products can also move
del Rey, CA;
800-683-6696;
fax, 813-523-
2391; WWW
.quarterdeck
.com. Circle 410
on reader service
card.
PartitionMagic
3.02. List price: $69.95. Re-
quires; SMB RAM. SMB hard
disk space. Microsoft Windows
95. or OS/2 2.1 or later, or DOS
5.0. PowerQuest Corp., Orem,
UT; 800-379-2566; fax, 801-
226-894 1 ; w w w.po werquest
.com. Circle 411 on reader ser-
vice card.
UTILITIES
Web with a View
INSOs QuickView Plus focuses on the Internet, with
improved formatting capabilities. — By Barry Simon
V ersion 4.0 of INSO Corp.’s
$59 QuickView Plus picks
up where the last version of
this Editors’ Choice-winning file
viewer for Microsoft Wmdows 95
and Windows NT 4.0 systems left
off (“The Ultimate Utility
Guide.” May 14, 19%). You can
still right-click on a file-menu
choice to view a file, but there are
three new viewing methods.
Quick View Plus (QVP) can
now be installed as an ActiveX
control that automatically views
file types not otherwise support-
ed by Microsoft’s Internet Ex-
plorer. There’s also a Netscape
Plug-In that serves a similar
function under Navigator. In ad-
dition, with QVP you can right-
INSTAVIEW; INSO's QuickVien- Plus
lets you view files in Internet Explorer.
click on an attachment in Lotus
Notes 4.0 and Microsoft Ex-
change and view the attachment.
Finally, the program can reside
in the Windows 95 taskbar tray
and bring up a browse dialog
box for direct viewing.
The program supports over
200 file types, including the most
popular word processing,
database, spreadsheet, and
graphics formats. Still, some
old fallbacks have been omit-
ted or are awkward to use.
For example, among vector
formats. WordPerfect .WPG
and .WMF files are support-
ed. but EPS and CorelDraw
files are only viewable if they
have TIFF headers. The most
significant omission is support
for Access, TeX (.DVI) files,
and Microsoft Office 97 file
formats. INSO expects to up-
date QVP on its Web site.
You can now view embedded
graphs, and there's added for-
matting support for colored
text, hyperlinks, headers, foot-
ers, and bullets. You can also see
a full page at one time, and the
Quick Print feature, which al-
lows you to print a file without
viewing, is a valuable time saver.
With its near-complete inte-
gration with Windows 95 Ex-
plorer and Web browsers,
QuickView Plus was a pleasure
to use. Any user looking for file-
viewing capability will want
QuickView Plus, and current
users will want to upgrade.
QuickView Plus 40. List price:
$59. Requires: 4MB RAM,
7MB hard disk space, Microsoft
Windows 95 or Windows NT
4.0. INSO Corp., Chicago; 800-
333-1395, 312-329-0700; www
.inso.com. Circle 401 on reader
service card.
66 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
' . I'
It helped to have a few
c(Mtrol freaks on staff
Who better to design and
engineer a great handling sedan
than people who are obsessed
with power and control?
It was just such people who
insisted Dodge Stratus ES have
standard anti-lock brakes as well as
a fully independent, modified
double-wishbone suspension
like you ’d find in race cars.
They lobbied for an
available speed-sensitive,
variable-assist, rack-and-
pinion steering system that
allows for easy maneuvering in parking
situations, yet provides plenty of road
input at speed. They wanted the option of
an AutoStick^ transmission that gives
you the responsiveness of a
manual. And in their ultimate
power play, they
saw to it that
Stratus ES has
an available 24-valve,
single overhead cam V-6.
But by meeting their demands, it seems
we met yours, too. Because in J.D. Power
and Associates latest APEAL Study^,
Stratus tied as the “Most Appealing Entry
Mid-Size Car.’"
For still more information, call
1 -800-4-A-DODGE or visit our Web
site at http://www.4adodge.com
Skip Barter
r
r scr-tocDt^
Dodge is the official vehicle of the Skip Barber Driving School.
Stratus
The New Dodge
*l996Aulomoti\r performance. Pfecmion. and Uryrmt Study, based on 25,492 consumer responses. Ahvays wear y^rur seat belt.
Copyrighted material
Modem users are discovering
hardware can make a difference
in mobile connections.
01996 3Com Corporation. 3Com, Parallel Tasking and CtherLink are registered trademarks and AuioIQ
is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. * Limit one trial card per qualified business customer, per site.
A combo version (TP/Coax) is available Tor $239. Dollars in U.S. currency.
Mobile^
iVlany people believe the only variable
with dial-up connections is the quality oF
the phone line (which users can’t control).
The truth is these connections are hardware
negotiated. And superior hardware technology
yields consistently higher f>eribrmance—
r^ardless ot telephone line noise.
That s why the optimized 16-bit
modem architecture oF the 3Com
EtherLink IirLAN+33.6 Modem PC
Card delivers consistently high connect
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1-800-NET-3COM
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www.3com.com
Copyrighted material
Rpst Looks
WEB UTILITIES
iHEC
The Web: Fast and Slow
Net. Jet promises fast relief for Internet bottlenecksy but
it's a mixed bag, — By David Haskin
P eak Technologies’ $29.95
Net.Jet 1.11 speeds up
Web page access, but if the
page you want is frequently up-
dated, the information you get
may be a little out-of-date.
Net.Jet has tittle interface of
its own. Rather, this 32-bit Java-
based utility replaces your Web
browser’s cache and stores pre-
viously visited Web pages on
your hard disk. A site loads
faster from your PC’s hard disk
than it does over a normal Inter-
net connection.
Net.Jet's secret is that it uses
idle connection time to update
Web pages in the background.
The problem is that Net.Jet
works only with text; it doesn’t
download images any faster
than your browser can.
Nel.Jet also monitors your
browsing habits and periodical-
ly updates cached pages of fre-
quently visited sites. With
Net.Jet, all the text on the ZD
Net home page required only 5
seconds to load — typical of the
times we recorded during test-
ing; using our browser’s regular
cache required 8 seconds.
When we clicked on a link in
one page, Net.Jet frequently
loaded the linked page almost
instantaneously. We tested Net
.Jet with a 28.8-Kbps dial-up
connection using Microsoft In-
ternet Explorer.
Although Net Jet l.Il speeds
up Web page delivery, this initial
release works poorly with such
frequently visited, continually
updated sites as news and chat
pages. Unlike your browser,
Net.Jet doesn't compare cached
and online versions; if it did.
much of Net.Jet’s time-saving
advantage would be lost.
Instead, Net.Jet always dis-
plays the cached version. If
NetJet happens to have updat-
ed the page in the last few min-
utes. you see recent informa-
tion. But if Net.Jet cached the
pages two or three hours ago.
the information is outdated — at
least by Web standards. Clicking
on your browser’s Refresh but-
ton has no effect when NetJet is
running. A Peak Technologies
representative told us that a ver-
sion that caches pages more fre-
quently and includes a manual
update button should be avail-
able by the time you read this.
O D (2
SM>
FACELESS: Nei.Jet replaces your browser's
cache but has virtually no interface of its own.
You can download a free,
fully functioning evaluation
copy of Net.Jel from the compa-
ny’s Web site; after it's installed
Net.Jet automatically updates
itself when Peak
posts new versions.
Net.Jet's initial re-
lease shows flashes
of brilliance, but
too often it serves
only to speed up
access to old infor-
mation.
NetJet 1.11. List
price: $29.95. Re-
quires; SMB RAM.
3MB hard disk
space, Microsoft
Windows 95 or
Windows NT. Peak Technolo-
gies Inc., Bellingham. WA; 800-
453-5322, 360-733-6010; www
.peak-media.com/. Circle 404 on
reader service card.
L "
w
ers exactly the news you
Iwant, the way you want it.
Like PointCast Network, Head-
Liner is a free, Web-based ser-
vice; but unlike PCN, HeadUner
ventures out into uncharted terri-
tory to get your news.
Based on software-agent tech-
nology, HeadLiner combs the
Web for news, weather, stock
quotes, and more. Instead of
WEB UTILITIES
Web News While You Work
HeadLiner goes to the source in order to deliver news and
information to your PC. — By Jon Kaufthal
anacom's HeadLiner deliv- Using separate profiles — or con-
tent agents — for each Web site,
HeadLiner identifies the site^
headlines and story links. The
service then brings the data di-
rectly to your PC.
Getting started is a breeze: A
setup wizard asks a few questions
about your location and interests,
and then suggests several Web
sites. You can modify this list by
choosing as many as 40 sites via
a simple checklist.
HeadLiner can ei-
ther check for news
when yt>u connect
to the Internet or
dial up on its own;
the program also
checks newsgroups
and e-mail. Auto-
matic daily check-
ins with Lanacom’s
server ensure that
you get software up-
dates and profiles
for new and modi-
fied sites.
To suit different tastes, Head-
Liner provides several delivery
routes. There’s a flashy screen
saver — similar to PCN’s — and a
EXTIA, EXTRA: HeadLiner brings you all your
news the way you like to see it.
using a proprietary system,
HeadLiner goes directly to your
favorite Web sites and pulls con-
tent straight from the pages.
news ticker that scrolls across the
top of your screen. Our favorite
feature was NewsTitle, which
puts the latest headlines in the
title bar of the active application,
conserving valuable screen real
estate; click on a NewsTitle
headline and your Web browser
displays the full story.
HeadLiner^ Manager lets you
tweak settings and view archived
nevYs; filters and alerts put you in
control of which headlines you
see. News is soiled by day and by
site on one side of the program^
interface; a panel on the other
ride shows the full story.
A free beta release of Head-
Liner is currently available from
Lanacomls Web site. In addition,
a Plus Package, featuring en-
hanced capabilities, is scheduled
for sale later this year. This add-
on includes intranet support as
well as the ability to subscribe to
an unlimited number of sites and
create your own agents.
In short, HeadLiner pro-
vides all the news that’s fit to
download.
HeadUner. List price; Free.
Requires: SMB RAM, 3MB
hard disk space, Microsoft
Windows 95 or Windows NT
with Dial-Up Networking.
Lanacom Inc., Toronto, On-
tario. Canada; 416-490-7744;
www.lanacom.com. Circle 405
on reader service card.
70 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 2S. 1997
Copyrighted material
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First Looks
MATH SOFTWARE
The PC Is Now Axiomatic
Sophisticated mathematical software comes
to Windows. — By Barry Simon
N umerical Algorithms Groups
$750 Axiom is the program
for those with extremely so-
phisticated mathematical needs,
but it may be too complicated for
solving simple problems.
Like Mathematica, Maple V,
and Macsyma. Axiom can either
be run in interactive mode or
work with programs written in its
proprietary symbolic-math lan-
guage. And like its competitors.
Axiom deals with symbolic ma-
nipulation. arbitrary precision
real numbers, and exact rational
arithmetic. But Axiom goes a
step further by including a com-
piler to improve performance.
What sets Axiom apart is its
extensive variable typing and the
program's object-oriented hierar-
chy of methods. For example, we
for such items as simplification of
trigonometric formulas. You can
use Axiom to do such simplifica-
tions. but only if you tell it the
DUp
SPIN CYCLE: Axiom 's high quality 3-D graphics
can he rotated in real time.
rules; so Axiom is ill-suited for
certain simple problems.
Three-dimensional graphs ap-
pear in a window with a wheel so
you can rotate and zoom in on
the results in real time. And links
to NAG’s Libraries of FOR-
TRAN routines and to IRIS Ex-
plorer. the company's scientific vi-
sualization program, are a bonus.
set up a type (the
assignment of
variables to class-
es): List Equation
Polynomial Frac-
tion Integer, which
describes lists of
polynomial equa-
tions whose coeffi-
cients are rational.
This level of typ-
ing detail would
be oppressive but for Axioms
ability to infer the type of any
object that you donY explicitly
set. These types form a hierarchy
of methods that act on objects
in an inherited fashion, much
as they do with object-oriented
programming.
The program lacks its com-
petitors' large libraries of rules
Axiom’s user interface is
IBM’s TechExplorer, which al-
lows integration of an extensive
help engine with TeX-based dis-
plays of formulas. This works
well for simple interactions, but
the program lacks the visual na-
ture of the notebook interface
that Mathematica pioneered.
The result is that with Axiom you
can't mix te.xl with formulas.
During testing. Axiom was
prone to crashes, particularly
while accessing ."^-D graphs, and
rather than storing program data
and settings in the Registry,
Axiom requires long strings in
your AUTOEXECBAT file.
Axiom is late to the PC sym-
bolic-math party, but it's a serious
contender worthy of evaluation.
Axiom. List price: $750. Requires:
24MB RAM. 70MB hard disk
space: Microsoft Windows 95 or
\Yindows NT. Numerical Algo-
rithms Group Inc., Downers
Grove. IL; 630-971-2337; fax.
630-971-2706; www.nag.com. Cir-
cle 416 on reader service card
8ETTINQ BETTER: Performance Plus Optimizer provides a graphical
front-end to the CONFIG.SYS file and recommends improvements.
OS/2 UTILITIES
The OS/2
Tune-Up
Performance Plus finds
extra processing power.
— By Brian Projfit
C lear & Simple’s $40 Perfor-
mance Plus 4.0 is a rich set
of tools — and a bargain —
that lets you tune your 0/S2 sys-
tem for maximum performance.
The manual that comes with
Performance Plus is more a
primer on OS/2 tuning than a
typical user's guide. Of the 1 14
pages. 90 discuss the factors that
affect performance and tell you
how to optimize performance,
so the manual is far more valu-
able than most product docu-
mentation. It even discusses the
new option in OS/2 Warp 4 that
lets you terminate individual
processes in your system.
Following the instructions, we
first ran the included benchmark
program, which records perfor-
mance in four areas: program
loading. CPU. disk, and video.
We then ran Performance Plus
Optimizer, an intelligent front
end to the CONFIG.SYS file.
After accepting all of Optimizer^
recommended changes, we re-
peated the benchmark program.
Our system's ability to load pro-
grams improved by 13 percent,
while disk access time and video
speed improved by 4 percent and
1 1 percent, respectively.
Performance Plus accomplish-
es these improvements primarily
by optimizing the cache and
buffer sizes. We could probably
have achieved these results man-
ually. but it's hard to imagine an
easier, quicker way to get such
p>erformance gains.
The program's BlackBox pro-
vides an intelligent front end that
simplifies changing DOS and Mi-
crosoft Windows program set-
tings to improve their perfor-
mance. In addition. Performance
Plus comes with a Lite version of
Clear & Simple's file manager.
DiskJockey, JukeBox for quick,
low-overhead playing of sound
files, a simple, quick bitmap
viewer, an automatic desktop
archive facility, and a backup
program that uses the freeware
compression utility, InfoZip.
At $40, Performance Plus is a
bargain that can help you get the
most out of OS/2.
Performance Plus 4.0. List price:
$40. Requires: SMB RAM, 3MB
hard disk space, OS/2 Warp 4.
Clear & Simple Inc., Simsbury,
CT; 860-658-1204; fax. 860-651-
0354: www.clear-simple.com.
Circle 415 on reader service card.
Hig w [^'ism
COMPAQ
There Comes
Itself In
A Point When Every
The Mirror And Say
Company Has To Look
One WORD: Server.
PCs linked together no longer provide the resources you need to run your business. Which is why we’re introducing the
Compaq ProSignia 200. It creates a robust computing environment that enables you to share information and resources over a
network. Even as you connect more and more people together— e-mail, access to files and printing take mere seconds, making
your employees more productive. And your business more competitive.
How much would you spend to have this? How about the price of a desktop? The ProSignia 200 is the first true server
designed for your growing business. It has superior price:performance, industry-leading manageability and proven integration.
Managing the ProSignia 200 doesn’t demand a lot of time or people. With SmartStart and Insight Manager, configuration
i I
and management are easy and always under control. And Compaq offers the most extensive Pre-Failure ^
Warranty, one which reduces downtime by replacing key components when performance levels dip.
For more information on the ProSignia 200, call your local Compaq Authorized Reseller or visit us at
www.compaq.com. The ProSignia 200. The server for successful companies in their formative years.
The ProSignia 200 ^
Pentium®
ITnoetitOM
CI997 CompMi Computer CorporuMn. All rlghti re»ervcd- Con^uq reglitemi U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ProSigiua 200, SnurtStan, Intighi Manager and Pre-Failure Warrant} are Irademarlu
or regtitercd Iradrmaika of Conuq CnnuMtcr Corporation. The Intd Inaidr Logo tni IVntium are rcvictered trademarks and the Pentium Pmccatnr Loeo U a trademark of Intel Corporation. In Canada,
can be reached at l-800-S67-lhl6.
Copyrighted material
First Looks
UTILITIES
Who’S Doing What When
Interested in a key-by-key account of how employees use
their PCs? Try WinWhatWhere. — By Neil Rubenking
W inWhatWhere 97 keeps a
detailed record of activity
of one PC or every PC on
your company’s network. This
$99 package can track how much
time an employee spends using a
program, working on a docu-
ment, or visiting a Web site, and it
can count the number of key-
strokes and mouse clicks, and
measure the distance a mouse
has moved. Although this moni-
toring of computer time and
usage may seem intrusive to
some, WinWhatWhere ( W3) can
provide valuable productivity
and ergonomic information.
W3 works by automatically
updating a central database with
detailed reports from all W3-
equipped workstations on a net-
work; it then lets you export the
collected data in a variety of for-
mats. The program not only
tracks which applications are ac-
tive, but it reports changes to an
active window's caption to cap-
ture the name of the document
in use or the Web site visited.
The administrator can set W3
to run invisibly and prevent its
being turned off. Despite its po-
tential for abuse, W3 need not
be a tool of oppression. A report
that all workstations are busy 95
percent of the time, for exam-
ple, may indicate the need to
buy more or better equipment.
And W3 can be used to perform
time and motion studies, so that
software designers can quantify
and minimize mouse mileage
and keystrokes. Contractors can
use the program to generate
time and billing reports.
The program is available for a
30-day free trial from the com-
pany's Web site. With Win-
WhatWhere. you’ll know how
your PCs are being used.
WinWhaMfhere 97. List price:
$99; network version, $495. Re-
quires; SMB RAM, 5MB hard
disk space, Microsoft Windows
3 jt, Windows 95, or Windows
NT 3.51 or later. WinWhat-
Where Corp., Kennewick, WA;
800-2424775; fax, 509-585-9294;
www.winwhatwhere.com. Circle
402 on reader service card.
WAZZUP?
WinWhat-
Where reveals
exactly how a
PC is used
A. The information is organized in a familiar file tree; main controls are on the top.
Time spent performing a task is listed, as is the program being used.
I. You can assign a billing code or project name to any activity.
C. The program tracks the number of times and how far a mouse moves,
0. W3 provides an extensive collection of export options for producing activity repcvts.
PRESENTATION SOFTWARE
A More Persuasive Web
IVith its new interface^ Adobe Persuasion becomes a
better corporate citizen. — By Wayne Kawamoto
A dobe is turning its $395 Per-
suasion presentation pack-
age into a better corporate
citizen. Persuasion 4.0 includes
high-level file compatibility
with Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe Illustrator —
making its interface
more consistent with
other Adobe products —
and this version adds the
ability to convert presen-
tations into Web-based
documents.
To support use of the
Internet, Persuasion
now includes a copy of
Adobe Acrobat Dis-
tiller, which provides a
conversion utility for
putting presentations
into Adobe^ portable
document format (.PDF). Users
can download .PDF files of pre-
sentations and view them either
with Adobe Acrobat Reader —
which is distributed fiee — or with
Netscape Navigator or Microsoft
Internet Explorer in much the
same way as they view conven-
tional HTML pages.
Building on its Web features.
Persuasion can now link presen-
tations with any site if you drag
and drop a URL from your
browser into the program. In
addition. Persuasion offers cus-
tomizable templates foraeating
Web documents. A link-man-
agement feature tracks links
with pages, graphics, and URLs.
To work with other Adobe
products better. Persuasion
now accepts images directly
from Photoshop and Illustra-
tor. Our tests showed that with-
in Persuasion Illustrator files
become bitmap images that
retain their original PostScript in-
formation. and Photo-
shop images retain their
layers.
Longtime Persua-
sion users will notice
that not only does the
programs interface
now resemble that of
other Adobe products,
but the program sup-
ports similar keyboard
shortcuts as well.
Other features im-
prove on Persuasion’s
general capabilities. A
new eyedropper is a
standard graphics tool
that lets you sample, identify,
and match colors from import-
ed graphics or from anywhere
on the desktop. You can ma-
nipulate images with a new
cropping tool, and pixel-based
nudge tools help you to posi-
tion and size text or graphic ob-
jects exactly.
In addition. Persuasion now
has 84 different chart types, in-
cluding some very pleasing 3-D
varieties. By letting you simply
drag and drop multimedia ele-
ments and graphics from other
applications, the program ac-
cepts them in up to 30 indepen-
dent layers. There’s even a con-
version program for importing
Microsoft PowerPoint presen-
tations into Persuasion.
In all, Adobe strengthens Per-
suasion’s ties to its fellow Adobe
products, increases the product’s
capabilities, and adds .PDF-
based Web support. It's not quite
your mainstream presentation
mix, but Adobe Persuasion 4.0
handily performs most jobs that
require a persuasive look.
Adobe Persuasion 4.0. List price:
$395; upgrade. $129. Requires:
SMB RAM, 20MB hard disk
space, Microsoft Windows 3.1
or Windows 95. Adobe Sys-
tems Inc., San Jose, CA; 800-
685-3505; fax. 408-537-6000;
www.adobe.com. Circle 403 on
reader service card.
WEBSTER: Adobe Persuasion pages can now he
convened for use on the Web.
76 PC MACiAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrtghled material
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‘The US. Robotics Sportster ISDN 128K stood out for its performance, ease of use. all-around flexibility, and
reasonable price... it blew away the competition in our remote access tests, making it an ideal choice for
teleconvnuters. The Sportster was a dream to install — you simply plug it in and go." PC ^rld, August ’96
1 he SpwtsterlSDN 128K might have been named the Screamer. It was the only product in our test group to
provide data compression, and this ISA bus ISDN adapter, from U.S. Rc^tics, blew the other five products
away on our performance tests." PC Magazine, lune '96
“A top performer in our testing, the inexpensive, feature-rich Sportster 128K has buy me' written all aver it... At
only 5399, this internal adapter rockets you from place to place on the Internet at speeds of aver 1 13 Kbps
with none of the limitations imposed by a serial port." CNET, july ’96
Copyrighted material
OIKIbibotlcs’
b* ^TT.^" «f«temark. and TurboPPP U . tr«tenu,k of U.S. RobolKS. PC World, PC Magazine, and CNCT are used for identrfica,»n purposes only ar*d n«y
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plotform, the Premio HX is your best choice
for Windows 95 and mixed 16* and
32*bit environments. With Concurrent PC),
Bus Master IDE, ECC, and USB support,
Premio delivers the power and reliability
needed for your business opplicotions.
PlotformS The Premio HX is
tested compotible with NetWare 4.x,
Windows NT, Soloris’, and SCO* Unix,
and is DMI-enobled. We cross test and
integrate components from Adaptec*,
3Com’, ATI', and others. Custom, local
assembly ensures solutions tailored to your
needs are delivered quickly.
"In short, this (PREMIO HX) system will do just about anything you might need,
and for a very reasonable price. ”
— Windows Magazine, November 1 996
For more information on how Premio Power Platforms can help your business,
please contact us immediately:
Phone: 800-677-6477
Web: http://www.premiopc.com
E-mail: mktg@premiopc.com
i^fcPREMIO’
PERSONAl ♦ COMPUTERS
Manufactured by CampuTrertd
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BYTHOMOXONNOfl
LIVING
PRODUCTS
R E V I E W • «i llriuil \mM
Second Looks
NOTEBOOKS
The Open Door Policy
T he Panasonic CF-25 earned
our kudos for merging the
durability of a ruggedized
design with the performance and
portability of a value notebook
(First Looks, January 21. 1997).
During our evaluation, the
CF-25*s metal case took the
knocks of daily use and came
back for more.
After we published our re-
view, we discovered a part of the
case that didn't quite stand up
to our punishment. Although
virtually the entire case is made
of a high-strength magnesium
alloy, the hinged latches that
conceal the floppy disk drive,
PC Card slots, and ports on our
unit were constructed from
fiber-reinforced plastic. As
happens so often with note-
books. it didn't take long before
a latch broke off, leaving the
floppy disk
drive exposed to the elements.
We were not alone in discov-
ering this. because Panasonic —
and some early buyers — also no-
ticed the problem. Panasonic
engineers redesigned the latches
using a stronger and slightly
thicker plastic, particularly for
the area around the thin
hinge pins that hold the
door in place. The hinges
were also redesigned, so
they snap in and out more
easily, minimizing the
chances of breaking the
part altogether.
For details on how to gel
replacement doors for your
CF-25, call Panasonic at 800-
662-3537.
With its revamped doors,
the Panasonic CF-25 should be
a sturdy and reliable travel
companion.
UTILITIES
PowerToys, Writ Small
E ven the most die-hard
Windows CE fans would
admit that Microsoft's op-
erating system for hand-held
PCs lacks many of the func-
tions, tools, and grace of a desk-
top operating system (First
Looks, Janu-
ary 7 and Jan-
uary 21, 1997).
Realizing that,
Microsoft is
bolstering
Windows CE
with some in-
teresting add-
ons, starting
with a group
^ I'.lr.iildloi
cascade
cascade
i(Ji> mule
^ Tap Launch
Welcome
fivald Clock
Unlike the PowerToys for
Windows 95 (First Looks, Octo-
ber 24, 1995). this group of
programs is strictly business.
Free for download from
www.microsofi.com, the 1.2MB
PowerToys file adds four major
abilities to your Windows CE
I system: a rudimcnian,' Paint
cascading
program.
^ Accessoffei
i i Cl Comffiurtceiion
! 1 Cl Games
! i CJ Inloimalion Managet
ND Office
of utilities and applets called
PowerToys for Windows CE.
menus. Control Panel
shortcuts, and several
audio enhancements.
Load POWTOY.EXE on
your desktop PC with your
Windows CE system connected
and the installation program
does the rest. Plan to spend
about five minutes getting
PowerToys set up.
In addition to three groups
of new sounds (analog, metal-
lic. and organic), PowerToys
adds the ability to mute the sys-
tem at the touch of the stylus.
The program has a speaker
icon on the taskbar tray that
can instantly
quiet your Win-
dows CE ma-
chine. Tap on
it and a black
X covers the
speaker icon, sig-
nifying that the
Dejkiop
My Documonlt
^ My Handl'iftld PC
< Pfogtm ^
i ^ Pfogiamt
i ^ Recent OocumenU,
^CjSeUings
Startup
Exi
BUG BRIEFS
Problem: Our mailbag has been filled with letters from users of IBM
Antivirus 2.5 looking for a simple, quick, and direct way to remove the
entire program.
Solution: Unfortunately, in order to remove all vestiges ofAntiVirus from
your PC, you must go through a convoluted 20-step process that's
detailed in the program's Help section.
Problem: The 3-D performance of the Editors' Choice-winning Diamond
Multimedia Stealth 2000XL paled in comparison with its excellent 2-D
abilities.
Solution: To speed things up considerably, download and install the
latest drivers from Diamond's Web site iWww.diamondmm.com).
unit is in silent
running.
On a day-to-
day basis, the
most useful part of the Power-
Toys collection is the Control
Panel Annunciators, which re-
side in the taskbar tray
and consist of nothing
more than shortcuts to
frequently used Con-
trol Panel details. PowerToys
also adds the ability to cascade
menus, streamlining the use of
these hand-held PCs. This fea-
ture works from a taskbar tray
as well and looks like a folder
with a file icon on top. Tap that
icon and a list of the system's
major functions — which is dif-
ferent from the Start menu —
appears on the right. Each of
the items, from Desktop to Set-
tings. can be cascaded to the
left, making it easy to get to all
of your HPC's functions.
The lack of the Pocket Paint
program was probably the
most significant deficiency of
the original Windows CE re-
lease. But the Pocket Paint
program in PowerToys has
a major shortcoming; It's strict-
ly monochrome. Colorful
bitmapped images are ren-
dered in posterized gray-scale.
And the applet is limited to
.BMPs, which makes it poorly
suited for viewing graphics
files. In the final analysis,
we found that Pocket Paint
was better for creating hand-
drawn images, such as maps,
notes, or rough floor plans,
that will be faxed or e-mailed
from your ultraportable PC,
m In sum, Power-
Toys makes a
Windows CE
^ system handier.
SECOND LOOKS MAILBOX; Tell Second
Looks about your experiences with
computer products. Contact Brian
Nadel via MCI Mail (556-1500).
CompuServe (72241.1616). or the
Internet (bnadel@‘zd.com).
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 81
Copyrighted malariai
Copyrighted material
The new Toshiba portables. ►iiiut Ttcssoioor
Maximixycurmuhiinediaapplicatiofli
Piool that dreams do come tme. b,02musii«theiuMHihmiiii<*
pncnof wdi MMX Mchnoiogr
Nobody knows more about recent
technological advances in the
computer industry than you do.
^ TIDED COSrCREKClSG
ExpenenoB bcH(>4aa oiiTummicabori
in and out of the oAce With Ktpcnot
video quality and «a» ol un
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EquqyedwahboflBrtTTTooloc Imagire
tfelsgHtdBpbyatailahle mapotaUe
^ lOX CD-ROM'
Accats your video, sound and data
with tha maufflum ^»ed available
No article goes unread. No research or review untouched.
You are the tech guru in search of the ultimate computer.
Which is why, as the worid’s leader in portable technology, you
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can always rely on us to meet your needs. And we have, time
and time again. By being the first to offer you portables loaded
with the latest, most relevant technology. Like video conferencing
and Intel MMX" technology. Introducing the
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SUUDtVHVniaxndBaaer* *
tecanpattevnhitaonlsBno •
; StRntttmlVpeSaouTvpein
• ISttFCCkdaZooRHlVldBoIZVlCM
I a324fC^sfiiBCaRk
btoed pen lMM n OB<taU
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: FDDioctt
And though flying portables aren 't yet a reahty when they are.
Ps»Hft>0 tft'
we 'll be the first to bring them to you. After all, our
Microsoft *
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commitment to delivering you the latest technology is
what we're about. For more information about our
amazing new portables, call 1-800-457-7777, or visit
our Web site at http://computers. toshiba.com.
In Touch wfli Tomorrow
TOSHIBA
Opnmal Dak Soon VAb !
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:’:opyiiyhted material
CIRCLE 376 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Shown above
Model PT775
ViewSonic PT775
• \r CRT Size
16.0* Viewable
• Aperture Grille Pitch .25mm
• 96 KHz Horizontal Scan Rate
• 1600x1200977 Hz
Maximum Resolution
• TCO Compliance
• 'P(u£&!P(ay'^
ViewSonic PT613
• 21* CRT Size
20.0* Viewable
• Aperture Grille Pitch .28 mm
• 107 KHz Horizontal Scan Rate
• 1600x1200 9 85 Hz
Maximum Resolution
• TCO Compliance
I • 'PCug&Tiay^
Aperture grille technology
that rewrites the spec charts.
It’s one thing to say our new PT775
17" (16.0" viewable) monitor sets a new
performance standard. It's quite another
to back up that claim. But we've got the
technology and the specs to prove it.
Featuring a 0.25mm aperture grille
pitch, the PT775 achieves breakthrough
quality in brightness, color saturation
and screen clarity with a maximum
resolution of l600 x 1200 at a remark-
able 77 Hz refresh rate.
It works hard. It olavs hard.
The PT775 SonicTron" draws on
ViewSonic technology to exceed all
high-performance demands-from
graphic design to business presentations
to CAD and the internet.
And, the PT775 is backed by a limited
3 year warranty on CRT, parts and labor
(the best in the business), as well as an
optional Express Exchange" Service pro-
gram that insures 48 hour replacements.
To exceed your highest expectations, call
(800) 888-8583 and ask for agent 7007
for the dealer nearest you,
3iL
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(9091^-7976 Fax (909) 869-7958 •Internet i«Mw.vie«woiXixxn • Spec^caiiCXB subied to diange 1997 • All reserved
CIRCLE 117 ON READER SERVICE CARO OR GOTOVVVVW.PCIulAO.COM/ProductUnk
Copyrtghied material
Biu NUchrone
Getting into a Higher Gear
T he mere fact that you’re sitting here reading this magazine
means you care about your future. You wouldn’t expend this
much effort on anything that you didn’t care deeply about or that
wasn’t important to your career. You’re learning new things all the
time. The challenge is to learn the right new things so
you can stay on top of emerging technologies and make
informed decisions about products and projects.
PC Magazine Labs technical director Nick Stam and I
were talking recently, trying to identify the technologies
and areas of knowledge that will propel
you and your career into the next century.
Here’s a rundown of some of the things
we consider most important.
HTML is almost too obvious to list.
Although we'll evolve to a time when
people say, “Remember when we used to
hand-code these pages?’’, we aren’t there
yet, and we won’t be for several years.
Great-looking pages need to be tuned
and tweaked. Whether you’re doing it
yourself or supervising the effort, HTML
will affect your life for some time to come.
Making those pages do what you want
on the server side is a job for CGI, Java-
Script. and Perl. Too many server scripts
hurt performance, but there’s an inescap-
able bare minimum of them.
For developers, C++ is the language
of choice, although I'm not entirely sure
why. I don’t program anymore, but from
my vantage point it looks as though pro-
grams written in object-oriented C are
as incomprehensible as everything else
that’s ever been written — they’re just big-
ger and slower. For my money, you can
get a lot more done in Borland's Delphi.
C++ will put you closer to the heart of
Java, however. The world of thin clients
and portable applications is far from sorted out, but Java
will doubtlessly play a key role. As a developer, you may be
frustrated by Java’s limitations, but they are there for your
own (and the client’s) good. It’s equally important to un-
derstand ActiveX, because even though Microsoft will
^ continue to support Java, it hopes to reduce Java’s si^ifi-
g cance drastically through the sheer power and flexibility of
E its next-generation ActiveX controls.
I You can get into ActiveX at any of several levels. At
« the most cursory, you'll just include it in your programs.
I setting switches to determine which features your users can
g and can’t use. At the deepest level, you can get into the un-
I derlying object model. Learn all you can about ActiveX.
because this new breed of controls is much more powerful
and functional than anything you've seen before.
The Internet explosion is creating lots of new job oppor-
tunities (many of them unwelcome, especially in companies
that were just getting their LANs to be stable). Now, as you
look into load-balancing HTTP requests
across multiple redundant servers, you’ll
find hardware and software, each with
its own pros and coas. You’ll also want to
brush up on the latest in IP-address alloca-
tion. Here again, you’ll need to sort out
competing techniques and technologies,
such as BOOTP. DHCP, and WINS.
In the database world, ODBC is well
established, but JDBC is barking at its
heels, and Microsoft Jet is, well, taking
off. Databases and data warehouses are
essential for building the next generation
of Web sites for intranets and the Inter-
net. Your future success won’t be mea-
sured by how many pages your site con-
tains but by how many can be built on the
fly and how fast.
All of that back-end technology is
worthless if people can’t get to it. Building
a high-speed network that handles all
your internal and external traffic is an ar-
duous task. The router and switch compa-
nies keep cranking out new hardware and
promising faster speeds, but only careful
study will help you select the right prod-
ucts and providers. Y ou' ve got critical de-
cisions to make about third parties and
outsourcing, service providers, and telcos.
Can those companies provide (or do you even want) remote
LAN access? Security issues are paramount here, so you’ve
got to steep yourself in the latest firewall and encryption
technology, too. Is your site ready to process secure trans-
actions? Do your customers agree?
From the user side, are you up to speed on everything
you could be doing for your road warriors and telecom-
muters? What about audio- and videoconferencing? If
you’re still using POTS (plain-old telephone service) and
fractional T1 solutions, you need to keep an eye open so
you can judge when the ever-better Internet solutions are
ready for prime time.
Whew. That’s quite a to-do list. Good thing this is fun. □
STUDY GUIDE
Read up on
the technologies
that will propel
you and your
career into the
next century.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 85
[lllj
1 >1 :
1 )1 :
IT
,T. 1
i i 1 » j ^ k
[iy
For Reliability and Service,
Micron is Unsurpassed.
Want proof? Listen to what the readers of PC World* magazine had to say
when thev rated computer companies for reliability and service
{KWo^Dk. 1996).
• For the second year in a row. Micron was recognized as the top maker of reliable
PCs and provider of customer service. And again Micron was rated the best PC
company overall
• Extremely reliable, Micron systems had fewer reported problems than other PC
brands. In fact. Micron boasts one of the lou^st problem rates in the industry.
• Not only did owners of Micron systems report few problems with their PCs. they
also applauded Microns competent support staff as the best at problem resolution.
No wonder Micron PCs were rated the best for user satisfaction. Simply put,
owners of Micron PG have less to wort)’ about.
Extremely reliable. Top'Uotch service. Award-winninE performance. Micron
has you covered. Call now to order your new Micron rc.
* S-yur limited warranty on microprocessor and main memory
* }-year limited parts-only system warranty
* 1-, I- or 3-year optional on-slie smlce afpeenimi lor Mkron drskiup systems
* 30 days ol free Miaon-supplied software suf^khI for Micron desktop systems
* 30-day money-back policy
* 24-hour technical support
W» a « M OMM Of stew * mnOM MM M COnMen. o' iM
M ntiMm ol Hit my lD> wwte sortgwWm CctM* o* OTrarM. mty 0. oHamM
aur WHM*o>W etlnoUeran
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CIRCLE 1 19 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCMAG.COM/ProductUnk
PC World Reliobitity & Service $urvey~'PC World, December 1996
July 1994 January 1995 December 1995 December 1996
MICRON
■ ELECTRONICS, INC.
800-2954)546
http://www.mei.micron.com
John C. Dvorak
When Push Comes to Shove
I ts called/>t4y^ technology or just 'phln ptish, and it s the latest buzz-
word in the Internet game. It’s also something we don’t need and
should reject. Push technology assumes we need more information
when we already have too much. The idea stems from the notion
that we currently gather information from the Internet using
pull methodology. In other words, we decide we want some-
thing, then we actively go out and get it. You’ll find a similar
concept in sales and marketing. For example, a customer
goes into a store and asks for a particular product. If the
store doesn’t have it, the manager orders
it. Eventually, the store stocks that item.
The converse is push-through mar-
keting. in which the store carries and sells
to customers products they didn’t know
they wanted to buy. Merchandising and
hard salesmanship convince us that we
need some product or other. In many
cases, push marketing results in cus-
tomers buying things they don't want.
Manufacturers prefer push-through mar-
keting because it is controllable, and it’s
also the only way a crappy product can be
sold. I think you might see where I’m
headed with this. The key word is crappy.
On the Internet, the idea has emerged
that instead of waiting for people to hnd
your Web site or products, you push a
Web site (or the information contained
therein) at them. You get people to sign
up for some service, such as a so-called
customized newsletter, and then you
flood them with material they never
asked for. The idea of push is to move
more information from point A to point
B. whether point B wants it or not.
You might make the argument that we
would want the information if we knew it
existed. Again, this takes us back to mar-
keting. Most real sales are in fact pull-
through. whether marketers want to admit it or not. Nobody
buys no-name detergent. We are convinced by advertising
that Tide is the one to buy. We go seek Tide out and buy it.
The ads push the cust(xner to pulL The push is involved in the
marketing, not in the product. Nobody delivers Tide to your
doorstep whether you want it or not. Herein lies the problem
with push technology on the Internet. We don't want more
information; we want better information, on our own terms.
I learned this lesson years ago the hard way, while using
the GEnie online service, which would provide you with
a newsletter customized to your interests. I’m interested
in computers. So I entered “computers” and “IBM” —
just two words — on the form. What a mistake. I got every
story and related story from numerous newsfeeds. I let my
box go three days and thousands of messages piled up. I
tried to get through them but couldn't. Soon, there were
8,000 items in my in-box clogging up everything. Before
a month went by, I had to cancel the
account and discard the whole in-box. In
PC Magazine, every single article and ad
is computer-related. Do you want them
all? Go to the Web site yourself and pick
what you want, or thumb through the
magazine. That's pull. Having all of it
shoved down your throat, that's push.
Which do you think is better?
The fact is, we need a human between
us and the flood of information. This per-
son is called an editor. This editor works
for a publication, usually with other edi-
tors. Together, they sift through infoima-
tion — most of it being useless — and they,
as a team, pick what they think readers
might be interested in. This gatekeeper
function keeps us not ill-informed but
properly informed.
These functions cannot be done by a
computer anytime soon, no matter what
people tell you. They require something
a computer doesn't have: thought. Com-
puters can be programmed to sort news
stories to a smaU degree, but the real result
in the long term will always be an inunda-
tion of information — most of it useless.
But if the spigot is turned down too much,
important info will be lost altogether.
I'm convinced that the push concept is
just another farce, a scam, a cheap trick to sell more ads in
new ways. I have nothing against advertisers. My limits are
high. I’ve advocated placing advertisements over the urinals
in bathrooms so that businesses can tempt a captive audi-
ence. But that's different from having my mailbox fill up
with pushed-through information or having my browser
download gigabytes of useless nonsense. I object to the no-
tion that we should drown in information for the sole pur-
pose of satisfying a desire to see exactly how far advertising
will go before people say slop. When it comes to informa-
tion, only the seeker is sure of what he or she is looking for.
The entire push philosophy negates that simple concept.
PUSHY WEB SITES
Picking what
you want— that’s
pull. Having it
shoved down
your throat—
that’s push.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 87
^«-tl
mo-CoormATX! Twh-Cod mi DmlCPU-Coon
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POVMR SLTPLIES ■ EXCLOSLUES ■ CPU COOLERS
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TURBO-COOL 400 ATX $219
TURBO-COOL 600 TOWER ...M.™.'.... $399
ECONOADCAL
For a clean, easi'-to-build system,
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REDL^D.ANT POWTR
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CIRCLE 080 ON READER SERVICE CARO OR GO TO VWW.PCMAG.COM/ProductUnk
John C. Dvorak
Inside Track
ntel is just rolling out MMX,
and
to hear rumblings about
MMX2. Oh. brother. I have no
idea what MMX2 is supposed to
be, but let s hope it doesn't add
yet more instructions to the processor.
I assume it's just some optimization.
Chip Technology Dept.: If
you're looking for that cocktail-part>'
buzzword du jour, try extreme UV
lithography. This is the technology
that will again postpone the In-
evitable change (hat will soon take
place in basic chip-process technol-
ogy, the change that all chip makers
fear: the evolution from using light
to using X rays to draw little lines in
silicon. Once X rays have to be used,
mask technology and everything else
that can block light has to be changed.
X rays go through everything. EUV lithography will sup-
posedly take the line width on a chip down to 0.1 microns.
Intel is expecting its next-generation process to pro-
duce chips using a .25-micron line size. Most state-of-the-art
chips today are done at a .35-micron size.
I recall the days when there was a huge debate about
whether achieving submicron sizes was going to be next-to-
impossible. When someone first managed 0.8, it was a big
deal. “Probably the limit forever!” Amazing, these guys.
Whatever Happened to Radio Shack as a Com-
puter Giant, Anyway? Dept.: One of Tandy/Radio
Shack Corp.'s major shareholders. Jesse Upchurch, was re-
cently ousted from the board and began to make a public
fuss about the long, slow decline of the company as a leader
in technology. Believe it or not, Radio Shack was at one
time the number-one retailer in computer electronics and
held a 40 percent market share in the personal com-
puter business. That was in 1981, the year John Roach was
brought in, and that was when the decline began, according
to Upchurch. More recently. Tandy shut down its Incred-
ible Universe megastores and decided to refocus Computer
City — both of which arc retail concepts credited to Roach.
When Tandy made the announcement about pulling
the plug on Incredible Universe, I was disappointed, be-
cause I never managed to get to one of these stores to see
it. It was supposed to have been spectacular. I've never
even driven by one. Somewhere along the line, the three
rules of retail success were lost on Tandy: location, loca-
tion, location. From my perspective, these stores were
out in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure management
blamed the failure on something other than locale, but that
was the real reason Incredible Universe flopped.
My experience with Computer City has not been much
better. One time, I was invited to broadcast a radio show
from one of the first Computer City stores. At the time, I
had four or five books on the market. The store did not sell
any of them — what I would have ex-
pected as a minimum courtesy. When
I asked the store managers about this
oversight, they admitted they didn't
know much about computers. Up-
church may be on to something with
his complaints.
Subversive Activity Dept.:
What the heck is Lotus up to with its
l^ans to promote a rent-an-appHca-
tion scheme? The kxal papers around
Boston have made some vague refer-
ences to the idea. This is part of that
new Domino system you see in ads
on TV — confusing ads, I might men-
tion. Domino is actually a Web appli-
cation server designed to do a num-
ber of things, including incorporate
Lotus Notes into the Web environ-
ment. Along with this comes some
sort of scheme to rent applications.
According to reports, ISPs are somehow going to make
money on this deal. We'll see how this develops.
We Get Letters Dept: From Mohamed Sarny. I re-
ceived this terse note: Why did you change your opinion
about the network computer in PC Magazine.^ You first said
it was a failure (“turkey of the decade then you said that the
smart company that invents a cheap Web surfer could eat off
the Wintel platform. Which opinion should I believe?
I normally don't think it's necessary to explain a change
of heart, but I will this time. The original presentation of
the network computer made it seem as though the NC was
designed to take the place of the PC in every way. Once the
concept was made clearer, I agreed the NC could work for
certain vertical applications. I think the NC has potential.
Always take the secoixl opinion.
Welrd-SKe-of-the-Month Dept.: This is a new
Inside Track Department. I seem to run into odd Web sites
naturally in my online travels. Try this one on for size the
next time you go surfing: www.infowar.com. This is a site
dedicated to following serious security problems, high-
level hacks, information warfare, espionage, and the like.
Very interesting indeed. Webmasters and IS managers
should bookmark it.
So What Gives with the Mac Community?
Dept.: Still convinced that Apple is going to launch a PC
clone. 1 was amused by a recent trade journal survey that dis-
cussed Macintosh-user desires. What did they want
most in a new “modem OS'*? Number one on the hit parade
was plug-and-play hardware support. Sounds familiar, huh?
Protected memory, native PowerPC code, and preemptive
multitasking were next on the list. Except for native Power-
PC code, this sounded like a laundry list from a Microsoft
Windows or OS/2 user. Since when did the tail wag the dog?
Second to last on the Mac list was built-in Java support. Mac
users will want that. too. once it becomes popular on the PC.
Times sure do change. □
wc are already beginning
made it seem as though
the NC was designed to
take the place of the PC
in every way. Once the
concept was made clearer,
I agreed that the NC
could work for certain
vertical applications.
The original presentation
MARCH IS. 1W7 PC MAGAZINE
89
NEC ANNOUNCES A RADICAL NEW CONCEPT
TO THE WORLD OF BUSINESS COMPUTING:
BUY
NOW
SAVE
LATER.
Copyrighted material
THE INTEL PENTIUlf PROCESSOR WITH MM)T TECHNOLOGY.
ANOTHER WAY NEC REDUCES TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP OVER TIME.
From ttw very moment you buy an NEC computer featuring a Pentium processor with MMX technology, you begin reaping
thebeneflts.
Complex business applications will run 10% to 20% faster. Graphics and audio will be more powerful and realistic. And the
performance of certain functions within applications written specifically for MMX technology will be Increased by over 400%.’
But enhanced productivity is just one reason why you’ll want to invest in MMX technology now. An even more compelling
reason is to lower your total cost of ownership. By purchasing at the forefront of the technology
curve, you'll not only maximize your return on investment you’ll minimize your cost of obsolescence.
That’s because you’ll be able to take advantage of emerging data-intensive technologies such
as video conferencing, Internet and Intranet applications, sooner, and for a longer period of time.
However, NEC computers lower the total cost of ownership in other wgys as well.
Take Versa' notebooks, for instance. Not only is the NEC Versa 6050 one of the first to
ship with a 150MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology, it’s backward compatible
with your current Versa 6000 Series options. And our UltraCare' Program helps minimize the cost of service and support.
What’s more, the Versa 6200 Series will feature the fastest mobile Pentium processor with MMX technology (166MHz)
and the largest screen (13.3”) available in a notebook.
In addition to the enhanced productivity benefits of MMX technology,
NEC PowerMate" desktop systems come standard with Intel’s LANDesk' Client Manager
and NEC MagicEye" Technology. Which, by simplifying remote management and increasing
fault prevention, lower the total cost of ownership in other ways. Namely, by reducing
overall system downtime.
So look at it this way: The sooner you buy an NEC computer, the
sooner you can start saving money. Now if that’s not a radical concept, what is?
Call your authorized NEC reseller for immediate delivery. Or, for more information on how NEC computers pentIum*
can lower your total cost of ownership, call 1-888-306-4636 and reference “TOO.”
SEE, HEAR AND FEEL THE DIFFERENCE."
019B7 NEC Coripj* SvMTW I>«cvv • cA RsciM M NEC. tv. UInCn e I « 08 im) Mfvc» nwk. vto « I US Mtlno ndWTNrh. in]
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CIRCLE 1S7 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Copyhghled material
The
simpler
server.
riic \t*w IBM \S/K)0 VKanrt'd Kiiln
If you're ready to move your business up to a server,
the choice is simple: the new IBM AS/400 Advanced
Entry. FVices start as low as $7,995. An incredible value,
considering AS/400 Entry is actually five servers in one: an
Internet, database, application, print and network server.
Connecting to your PCs is a snap, and the high-
performance 64-bit RISC processor lets you unleash the
power and speed of your .32-bit PC workstations. Also
available is an onboard Intel Pentium processor that
runs your existing Novell NetWare PC applications,
protecting your software investment.
But you won't have to make a trade-off between
increased function and ease of use. The newest member
of .4S/400 Advanced Series. AS/400 Entry is among the
easiest servers to install, use and maintain. And AS/400
has the lowest cost of use for small businesses over a five-
year period, compared to leading LA.N server platforms.*
Add to that unparalleled reliahility, virtually main-
tenance-free operation, and built-in security features and
you can see why. when you het your business on your
server, your best bet is AS/400 Entry.
How can the new AS/400 Entry simplify your
business? To find out more, drop by www.as400.ihni.com,
or call 1 800 IBM-2468, ext. BAOOl. and ask about our
affordable financing.
Solutions for a small planet" s:— . — T s*
*Cost ol Use study source. IDC.1996 Ouoled $7,995 price based on U S published list price tor AS/400 Advanced 9401 Model ISO. configuiation 0181 (FSlOAnot include^ BM and AS/400 are registered trad^rts and Solutions tor a small
plane! is a trademark of Iniemalioffal Business Machines Corporation Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service mariQ ol others <0 1996 IBM Corporation
Copyrighted material
MANAOEMENT AND SERVICES
N S I D E
Future Strategies
How to prepare your network today for the
issues and uncertainties of tomorrow.
By Steve Buehler and Frank J. Derfler, Jr.
We’re using this anniversary issue to look for-
ward. In the main book, we look
at today’s hot technologies, while here
in the Network Edition we’re going to
help you tackle the management and ser-
vice issues that will occupy your atten-
tion for the next ten years.
You can predict the future. For example, you’re sure that
your users will want more services and that your CFO will
I worry about the cost of computing. The board of directors
I will worry about using computing power to maintain a com-
I petitive advantage, and you’ll worry about quality of service.
I New services, cost control, competitive advantage, and qual-
i ity of services are surely the four immediate concerns.
Look at bow far
network computiiig
has come in the last
ten years and you
wonder how we all
managed to keep up.
Technology develop-
ments over the next
decade promise to occur at an even
more blinding rate now that corporate
networks have met the Internet How
well you manage to keep up depends on
how well you plan for change.
PLANNING FOR CHANGE is what we
tackle in this Network Edition cover
story. Senior networking editor Frank
Derfler and PC Labs, West Coast
director Steve Buehler tell you how to
use network management and new
network services to stay ahead of the
competition during the next decade.
COST OF OWNERSHIP is the buzz
phrase that everyone is using to de-
scribe the hassle that comes with
maintaining armies of users and PCs.
Software-metering tools can help you
bring down the cost of ownership by
showing you how to purchase the
minimum number of software licenses
necessary to m aintain your users. In
this Network Edition First Looks,
contributing editor Steve Rigney looks
at OnTrack’s SofTrak for Windows
NT, one of the first software-metering
tools that tracks application usage
from a Microsoft Windows NT Server.
(PageNEM.)
SURVEIUANCE CAMERAS that work
over an intranet or the Internet
are hot items that we also cover in
First Looks, along with a Java based
terminal-emulation applet called
WebTerm Toolbox, which lets you
connect to a mainframe via the Web.
(Page NEll.)
YOU CAN GET RICH QUICK, says
senior networking editor Frank Der-
fler. In Multiple Access, he tells you
how. (Page NE23.)
— Leon Erlanger
■Hi
MARCH 25. 1997 K' MACsAZlNE NE1
ADAPTABILITY IS KEY TO
Expandable
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SUCCESS IN BUSINESS
Unlock potential with a truly versatile server.
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Copyrighted material
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Staying ahead of rapid
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tors will also have to know
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How do you travel four roads at once?
One key technique is network manage-
ment. There is no way you can find the
time to install new services, keep things
running, plan strategies, and hold down
costs without the help of little software and
firmware agents throughout your network.
But there are other smart techniques that
can help, such as outsourcing the right ser-
vices, working out problems incremental-
ly, and planning for change.
NEW SERVICES
The growth of the Internet and corporate in-
tranets has been a major networking trend of
the past year and promises to be an area of
growth for several more years to come. Users
want browsers, plug-ins, graphics, and video
that utilize HTTP, HTML and TCP/IP to
link desktop computers to applications.
Most of you will be grappling with the issues
in volved in setting up your company 's ' Web
and mail servers and etuihling collaboration
over the network. Here are three strategies we
think will help ease the way.
STMTEBYt Insettingupyourintranetusethe
hardware you have and an operating system
you know.
Today, Web servers will sneak into
your organization as PCs did in the 1980s.
But don’t worry: You don’t have to dive
I
into the mysterious world of Unix to set
up your intranet servers. Nor do you
have to make major new purchases of
powerful hardware. Our testing of Web
server load balancers for “Web Server
Traffic Cops,” the Network Edition
cover story for our issue of February 18,
1997 (available at www.pcmag.com),
found that when it comes to intranet per-
formance, WAN links — not server per-
formance — are the bottleneck. And
check out “Web Servers” in our issue of
September 10. 1996 for reviews of the
most popular Web server programs. For
most purposes, any of the popular Web
server programs from Microsoft,
Netscape, and Novell will give your Web
site all the performance it needs running
on a P166 with 64MB or more of memo-
ry. The key is providing enough memory
to service page requests from cache. For
better performance and fault tolerance as
well, set up a server farm using a load-
balancing solution.
STIATKY 2: Bring IP address management
under control.
If you’ve got a big network or a fluid
population, then the management of IP
addresses for all the nodes quickly be-
comes a problem, especially if you’re
linked to the Internet.
MM
For most small and medium-size net-
works, the DHCP and DNS servers in-
cluded in Microsoft Windows NT and
NetWare provide adequate IP address
management tools. But for large wide-
area networks, such IP management
packages as Cisco’s DNS/DHCP Manag-
er, Isotro’s NetID, and Quadritek Sys-
tems’ QIP can make the tasks of setting
up subnets, keeping your DNS server in-
formation up-to-date, and avoiding dupli-
cate IP addresses infinitely easier. We re-
viewed and tested these three products
for you in “Solve the Address Mess”
(Network Edition. March 4, 1997).
STRATEGY S: Use specialized tools to link your
Web servers to your corporate databases.
Linking to legacy applications via a
Web server can be a challenging task. The
common gateway interface (CGI) stan-
dard provides a way to pass requests from
a Web server to an existing database. Spe-
cialized tools such as dbWeb and Internet
Database Connector — which come with
Microsoft’s Internet Information Serv-
er — Netscape’s LiveWire, and Oracle’s
Designer/2(XX) and Webserver 2.0 bypass
CGI for tighter database connectivity.
“Grab That Data(base)” in the Network
Edition of September 10, 1996, has all the
details. If you have your own applications
NE4 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1W7
Generate Web and Client/Server Applications
Oracle Designer/2000
Generate Client/Server
Applications
Generate Web
Applications
Designer/2000'“ enables you to define your application visually rather than writing thousands of lines of procedural code.
Then, at the touch of a button, you can generate either a Web or a client/server application — or both. So you don’t have
to choose between supporting your existing client/server users or moving ahead to the Web. No other toolset can do this.
For more information, call Oracle 1-800-633-0518, ext. 11244, or find us on the Web at http://www.oracle.com
ORACLG"
Enabling the Information Age^
01997 Orack Corpontion. All ri^this rvsrrvetl. Onclr is a registered trademark. Oracle Oesigncr/ 200 () and Enabling the Inlormatitm Age are trademarks of Oracle Corporation.
All ocher company and prtxJuct names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyrighted material
NETWORK EDITION
COVER STORY
development team, it can and should
leam to use these tools. If you must start
a new team, however, we suggest out-
sourcing to a company with a proven
track record instead.
COST CONTROL
Sure, every 18 months you get more com-
puting power per dollar, but you still need
more power than you have dollars.
STRATTGV 4: To control and JustHV the cost of
computing, invest in network management
tools.
Modem enterprise LAN management
systems do a lot more than activate your
beeper when a server goes down. They offer
accounting functions — such as software dis-
tribution, license metering, and hardware in-
ventory — that are critical to low overhead
and high productivity. Security functions,
such as password tracking and virus detec-
tion, become even more important when
you connect to the Internet. Capacity-plan-
ning, trouble-ticketing, and event-logging
features all help to just^ budgets.
IBM’s SystemView leads the world in
management options and functions. Such
management offerings as Bay Networks’
Optivity, Cabletron's Spectrum Enter-
prise, Cisco’s CiscoWorks, Newbridge’s
Vivid, and 3Com’s Transcend are also very
complete.
Frye Computer Systems' Frye Utilities
and Novell’s ManageWise are very com-
plete hardware-independent software
suites. Products from other software com-
panies, including Intel's LANDesk Man-
ager, Microsoft Systems Management
Server, and Symantec’s Norton Adminis-
trator for Networks, focus on cost of own-
ei^hip-related functions such as software
distribution, inventory, and metering. To
get full functionality, you can integrate
these suites with the hardware-focused
configuration and reporting programs that
come with a lot of network equipment.
STRATEGY 5: Establish a point of demarcation
for the management of your expensive wide-
area network.
As we describe in “Business Connec-
tions” elsewhere in this issue, cost and fea-
ture advantages will drive you to replace
leased lines with frame relay and then with
ATM virtual private network services over
the next few years. Frame-relay subscribers
can get valuable real-time traffic reports
from their services in the SNMP format.
You should also evaluate having the
frame-relay service provider (or
providers — redundancy is smart) provi-
YournePworkisa
strategic advantage; being
competitive depends on
how well you use it.
sion and maintain the communications in-
terface equipment, provide firewall securi-
ty, and guard against viruses. Instead of in-
stalling and maintaining your own
remote-access server equipment, evaluate
using virtual private network services for
your road warriors and home workers.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Your network is one of your company's
strategic advantages, but being competitive
depends on how well you use this resource.
STRATEGY 6: Invest in workgroup collaboration
software.
Lotus Notes/Domino and Novell’s
GroupWise products have changed the se-
rial approach to document creation, distri-
bution, and changes into one of shared cre-
ativity and productivity. Even shared
whiteboarding products, such as Smart
Technologies' SmartBoard, enable collab-
oration using your network bandwidth.
See “Groupware: Reaching for the Net,”
in our issue of October 8, 1^6 for reviews
of major groupware packages.
STRATEGY 7: Use data-warehousing and -min-
ing tools to discover new opportunities for
your organization.
Y our company collects all kinds of infor-
mation about customers, vendors, suppli-
ers, and production. That data locked in
your legacy mainframe applications is a
gold mine for understanding what you do
well and how to take advantage of opportu-
nities you may be missing. Data warehouse
tools consolidate information from many
departments within an organization; data-
mining tools use sophisticated search and
statistical algorithms to discover new data
patterns and relationships. Data-warehous-
ing and data-mining tools from all major
database vendors are taking decision sup-
port to new heights.
STRATEGY 8: Use Intelligent server redundancy
and failover to keep your network open at all
times.
The strategic value of your network
goes negative when you can't keep the
pipes open at all times. Server-clustering
solutions now offered by Digital, mirrored
and standby server capability from Nov-
ell’s SFT III and Vinca, and even Web
server failover protection from Cisco keep
you online and making money when your
competition is floundering. Keep an eye
out for products based on Wolfpack, a
server-clustering standard that is being de-
veloped by Microsoft and various server-
clustering solution vendors.
QUALITY OF SERVICE
You 'll hear a lot about quality of service in
the next few years. While it's important to
remember that you have to keep the access
pipes open, make your choices carefully.
Some QOS solutions will be slow in com-
ing, and the driving force may be more for
your long-distance carrier's billing benefit
than for your throughput numbers.
STRATEGY 9: Guarantee QoS over your frame-
relay access detrices.
ATM has been getting the headlines for
its ability to support QoS by allocating
bandwidth to applications, but those appli-
cations have to be written specifically to
take advantage of this feature. LAN Emu-
lation won’t enjoy guaranteed QoS over
ATM for a while yet. While you're waiting,
though, you can guarantee QoS over your
frame-relay access devices. TxPORT’s 9111
family of FRADs offers buffering so that
whenever your burst rates exceed the line’s
committed information rate, your users
don't lose data. Smart use of advances such
as this will let you put the guaranteed ser-
vice levek where you need them.
STRATEGY 1(h Remember the maxim, “Switch
where you can, route where you must”
Intelligent network design and imple-
mentation will go a long way toward keep-
ing up service, and one part of that will be
looking at bigger-is-better options. Digi-
tal’s GIG Aswitch will lead the way for en-
terprise products that treat your network
as an old telephony “crossbar switch” —
any node can connect to any other node at
impressive speeds, reducing the network
infrastructure dramatically. Keep an eye
out for Layer 3 switching products from
major networking vendors. These promise
to combine the high performance of
switching with the intelligence of routing,
giving you the best of both worlds. □
NE6 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
I
You’ve been given the
authorit
to manage the network,
ow you have the i
contro
Seagate ExecView™
puts you In the
driver’s seat.
Your network is, in a word. vast.
You’ve got hundreds of non-
technical users. Many in remote
sites. You've got departments
whose very existence depends
on their data. And yet. you have
absolutely no control over whether
they back it up on time — or at all.
Enter ExecView from Seagate
Software (yes. software). ExecView
lets you monitor, manage and
generally get a firm grip on your
entire Windows NT or NetWare
environment. From the comfort of
a single console. It provides real-
time status reports of backups.
Plus audible and visual alerts. All
in a Windows-friendly Interface.
Call us and take control. Now
if you could Just figure out how
to control your IT department's
dress code.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
EXECVIEW CALI:
1 - 800 - 792-7894
www.smg.seagatesoftware.com
CIRCLE 671 ON READER SERVICE CARO
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* Optiono]
Copyrighted material
0(JII
i iiiiU w iiHr ti
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SMALL AND MED UM-SIZED
Tell me how to fix it ‘
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your Ethernet investment. Or stack 100BaseT hubs from the FastHub* 300 Series
for ten times the performance. Each offers unmatched configuration flexibility,
so you can add users and new technologies as needed. And they’re all part of
the NetBeyond system of switches, hubs, and routers, which extends your
network to branch offices, mobile users, and the Internet. Running under Cisco
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Want to know more? Get the free
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material
NETWORK EDinOII
First Looks
HANDS-ON REVIEWS OF NEW SHIPPING PRODUCTS
NETWORK CAMERAS
Eye on the Network
By Laura Lindhe
L ights, camera, and action can
now be part of your net-
work — and at a reasonable
price. If you've been looking for
a way to add value to your Web
site with a low-cost
“live cam” or to in-
stall a surveillance
system for your in-
tranet, network cam-
eras from Microplex
Systems and Axis
Communications are
worth looking over.
Although placement
of these devices is
limited by the length
of your Ethernet
cable, these solutions
let you add a
reference on your
Internet or intranet
site to show off what-
ever you think de-
serves a second look.
The Axis Net-
Eye 200 from Axis
Communications and
the Microplex NetworkEye/270
from Microplex Systems each
combine a digital camera with a
Web server. You view the im-
ages on HTML pages that can be
customized via FTP. The Net-
Eye and NetworkEye — for
which you need a color Connec-
tix QuickCam — differ in price
and picture quality. The NetEye
is more expensive, but its picture
quality is considerably better.
The wonder of these small
devices is that you don’t need
anything else to broadcast
images of parking lots, high-
ways, sunsets, or beaches to a
browser across any TCP/IP net-
work. These two network cam-
eras should inspire great busi-
ness plans and problem-solving
ideas. In our Labs, we found
both products easy to install.
And neither product should im-
pose any added work load on
network administrators. In
still provides a crisp image. De-
pending on the size of the image
you choose, a file is typically lOK
or 23K in size. But storage space
isn’t vital with the NetEye; it
boasts 784K of memory.
You install the NetEye by
plugging in the Ethernet and
power cables. Using standard
ARP, RARP, or Bootp service,
you assign an IP address and
Picture Quality: Though it costs more, the Axis NetEye 200 provides hetter-quality images.
short, these cameras are practi-
cal, reliable, and useful.
Axis Communications
Axis NetEye 200
This all-in-one approach from
Axis Communications, the Axis
NetEye 200, includes a camera
and a mini-Web server in a styl-
ish eye-shaped case about the
size of an external modem. The
device provides real value be-
cause of its picture-tailoring op-
tions and dial-in modem access.
The NetEye produces video
snapshots in JPEG file format
using internal hardware com-
pression. JPEG uses a smaller
amount of space than .GIF but
match it to the physical address.
The Ethernet address is printed
on the unit's case. Anyone with a
browser can use the IP address or
camera name as a URL to view
the camera's video snapshots.
At least one NetEye fea-
ture — continuous refresh of the
snapshots using JavaScript —
works only with up-to-date
browsers. So you need to use
Netscape 2.0 or later, or Internet
Explorer 3.0 or later.
Just as with the NetworkEye,
everything is password protect-
ed and you can make updates
and changes to the camera’s
setup from the browser view.
The NetEye gives you a greater
variety of options for your snap-
shots than the NetworkEye, in-
cluding size and resolution. In
our late, we found that the Net-
Eye’s light sensitivity was less
than that of a gc^ video
recorder but good enough to
provide useful images in the in-
terior of a normally lighted com-
mercial building.
The serial-port connection
should be useful in many installa-
tions. You connect a
modem to the unit
using a 9-pin RS232C
serial port on back of
the device. Axis favors
U.S. Robotics mixlems
for this function, but
the NetEye works with
most mc^ems at any
speed. You can use
^ixlem file transfers
to grab images from
the camera without a
network connectiort
And you can adminis-
ter the camera and
troubleshixji the sys-
tem through the serial
port. You can aLst) send
updates to the unit’s
flash memoiy.
Axis added a spe-
cial feature for the sur-
veillance implementation of the
NetEye: an auxiliary port that
can be programmed so that door
openers or other devices trip the
camera to come on.
Axis NetEye 200. List price: $995.
Axis Communications, Woburn,
MA; 800444-2947, 617-938-
1188; fax, 617-938-6161; www
.axisinc.com. Circle 955 on read-
er service card.
Microplex Systems Ltd.
NetworkEye/270
If you're a digital-camera buff,
at least part of the Network-
Eye/270, from Microplex Sys-
tems. may look familiar The golf
ball-shaped Cormectix Quick-
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE NE11
Someone finally simplified
the disc drive shuffle.
DiscWizard
Many folks get tripped up in the process
of upgrading their hard drives. So Seagate
has made doing the disc drive shuffle much
easier with DiscWizard?"
DiscWizard is a unique menu-driven software pro-
gram that simplifies the upgrade process and corrects
BIOS limitations found in ATA-interface systems.
You simply run the Windows-based program prior
to performing your drive upgrade.
DiscWizard quickly analyzes your
current system, asks you some simple
questions, then automatically provides
a detailed set of easy-to-follow installation
instructions. An on-line help system is available
to guide you through any trouble spots. When
you're done, your high-capacity drive will
be formatted and partitioned and ready to
handle high powered multimedia, audio-visual
and Internet applications.
DiscWizard software comes with select Seagate Medalist
and Medalist Pro disc drives. So if you are ready to do
the disc drive shuffle, simply follow the leader. For more
information, call 408-438-8111, or visit www.seagate.com.
We'll lead you from there.
(W Seagate
THE DATA TECHNOLOGY COMPANY
SmkaIi- and Ihv Smsilc logo are reguKred (radcmarks and DiicWizard is a trademark at Seagate Technology. Inc. C 19% Seagate Technology. Inc
CIRCLE 271 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WVVVIf.PCMAG.COM/PraJuctUnk
Copyrighted malsria!
Microsoft SQL Server
thinks
spending a coupie miiiion
on your data warehouse.
(Then reject that idea, chuckie heartily to yourself
and come visit our Web site.)
you shouid „
consider
ft ■=> O 0 a
Back Forward Stop Reftesh Home
e
Seaichi
. Address |http: //www. microsofL com/sql/
There are a couple of things that make Microsoft '
SOL Server * the smartest foundation for your data
warehouse solution. Rrst Is cost; s Microsoft SQL-based
solution will avoid the (potentially huge) setup and
administration expenses associated with the other, more
complicated approaches. Second, there's the Microsoft
Alliance for Data Warehousing, an association of
Industry leaders formed to help foster standards and
ensure Interoperability across products and systems.
Thanks to the Alliance, you know Microsoft SQL
will Integrate with other products. Which In turn saves
you time and trouble and, come to think of It, more
money. All told, Microsoft SQL Server Is the simplest .
most flexible and most affordable approach to data
warehousing on the market. For all the detallSt visit our
Web site at www.mlcroeoft.com/sql/.
Mkmsofi’
Where do you want to go today?' www.mlcrosoft.com/sql/
SUSMCSSOetECTS
INFORMATICA
GD
YKR
Pilot Software niTMM
PnMk IWtnwtf —■( he. I
C1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft and Where do you want to go today? are reestered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Other company names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyrighted material
NETWORK EDITION
Rrst Looks
Leon Erlanger
CROSSTALK
/ / Those are useful products for any IP net-
■ I work. Frank. ISPs, municipalities, build-
ing managers, and anyone else can use them to
provide publicity, information, or security
through an intranet or the Internet. An ISP
can offer video images as a value-added ser-
vice available only to subscribers. The ■ ■
options are endless. //
/ / I particularly like the design of the A.xis
■ I NelEye 200, Leon. Axis is an interna-
tional corporation with excellent engineering
and aggressive ideas. At $995. the NetEye
provides a lot of value. I expect that we'll see
NetEyes at the end of a lot of URLs
around the world.
55
Cam that takes photos in con-
junction with the Network-
Eye/270 server. You need either
the black-and-white ($99) or the
color ($299) version of the
QuickCam — which must be pur-
chased separately — to make the
NetworkEye work. But even
with the cost of the QuickCam,
this setup is about half the price
of the NetEye, making it an ex-
cellent solution if photo quality is
not your primary concern.
If picture quality is a concern,
you may want to think twice be-
fore purchasing the Network-
Eye. The QuickCam uses .GIF
format to take snapshots, and
they aren’t very clear or sharp;
Microplex plans to change for-
mat support in the future. An-
other drawback to the Network-
Eye is that, unlike the NetEye,
the QuickCam doesn’t have
manual focus.
That the NetworkEye, which
like the NetEye is a mini-Web
server, works with the black-
and-white QuickCam is a selling
point. At $99 a camera, plus $349
for the server, using black-and-
white NetworkEyes to monitor
various parts of a building is a
plausible and economic option,
because for surveillance image
quality is not as important as the
ability to detect movement. And
black-and-white images take
about one-third less memory
than color ones. This is crucial, as
the NetworkEye only has 64K of
storage space.
To install the NetworkEye,
you plug it into the network's
hub with a standard Ethernet
cable. As with the NetEye, you
use the ARP command — which
matches an IP address to the
MAC address of the unit — to as-
sign the unit an IP address. ARP
is part of the Microsoft Windows
95 TCP/IP stack: the physical ad-
dress is found on the underside
of the server box. In addition, a
secure administration account is
provided and configuration is
password-protected.
To control exposure, con-
trast, and color control, you sim-
ply use NetworkEye’s fill-m-
the-blank forms and pull-down
menus. Photos can be config-
ured for three different pixel
sizes. The HTML pages used for
the photo background are
downloaded and uploaded via
FTP for editing ease.
NetworkEye/ZTO. List price: $349.
Microplex Systems Ltd., Burn-
aby, British Columbia, Cana-
da; 800-665-7798, 604-444-
4232; fax. 604-444-4239; www
.microplex.com. Circle 954 on
reader service card.
SOFTWARE-METERING APPLICATIONS
Save Money and Stay Legal
By Steve Rigney
H ow many software user li-
censes do you have to
purchase to service all
your network clients? The
question is tricky, because you
don't necessarily need a license
for each user. Software-meter-
ing products help you get a
handle on the exact number of
licenses you need to satisfy
your users, stay legal, and save
money. Of these products, one
of the first to run on Windows
NT is On Technology Corp.’s
SofTrack for Windows NT
($795 for 25 licenses). It runs as
a Windows NT service and au-
tomatically keeps track of ap-
plications on the server.
SofTrack for Windows NT is
easy to use and provides excel-
lent reports, but it is unable to
monitor applications running
on clients. If you run all your
applications on Windows NT
servers, SofTrack can be useful.
Otherwise, wait for the next
version or other Windows
NT-based metering products.
Another consideration is that
the product doesn't work with
Microsoft File and Print Ser-
vices for NetWare, so you can’t
monitor applications that are
using that gateway.
To use SofTrack to
share licenses across
LAN and WAN links
among servers run-
ning different OSs,
you must have the
IPX/SPX network
protocol running
across the links. This
can be a problem, as
most WAN links run
TCP/IP. If you do
have IPX/SPX running, you can
use SofTrack’s Global License
Metering to share up to 65.(XX) li-
censes among an unlimited num-
ber of file servers.
SofTrack lacks other fea-
tures found in the NetWare
version, such as e-mail alerting
and the ability to license
groups of users. But if you run
the package with SofTrack for
NetWare, you can manage
both NetWare- and Windows
NT-based applications from a
single interface.
We installed the product in
about 5 minutes. If you want to
use the Global License Meter-
ing feature, you must install Sof-
Track on a Windows NT server
ware must be a NetWare client
with supervisor rights to both
NetWare and Windows NT
servers. To finish the installa-
tion, you must manually create
your SofTrack icons on the ad-
ministration PC.
You perform all configura-
tion and management tasks
using the SofTrack adminis-
Soft Toots:
You am perform
all the nece.ssary
confifiuraiion tasks
from the tool bar.
that has the IPX/-
SPX nctwt>rk proti>-
cols installed and
wt)rking. Further-
more. the PC you
use to install and
configure the soft-
tration utility. It runs on Win-
dows NT or Windows 95, and
if you’re also running Sof-
Track for NetWare, it allows
you to manage both your
Windows NT and your Net-
Ware servers. You can easily
switch between servers by
using an icon.
One of the most important
features of a metering solution
is reporting. SofTrack includes
several different reports, on
points such as time of use,
number of users, maximum
permitted concurrent use of a
program, each individual's
usage of a licensed program,
and the number of users wait-
ing for a metered application.
Our favorite is the Cost Sav-
ings Report. It compares the
maximum permitted concur-
rent usage to how many licens-
es you purchased, to help im-
prove the efficiency of your
software investment.
SofTrack for Windows NT. List
price; For 25 licenses, $795. On
Technology Corp., Cambridge,
MA; 617-374-1400; fax, 617-
374-1433; www.on.com. Circle
952 on reader service card.
Cep!
NE14 K* MAGAZINE MARCH 15. IW
Bay
Networks
Bay Networks System 5000™ simplifies networking by integrating technolo-
gies in a single platform. Integration means savings and flexibility. Plus,
more management control over your network with Optivity*, the industry’s
leading network management solution. Best of all, the System 5000 lets you
easily move from Ethernet switching today to ATM switching tomorrow.
Call 1-800-8-BAYNET ext. 179 for a free guide to switched internetworking,
or see it online at www.baynetworks.com/more.
Shared McdU A
Configuration Switching
Ethernet
Token Ring
FDOl
LAN Switching
Ethernet
Fast Ethernet
Switching
Virtual Network Routing
LAN Routing
Ethernet
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FDOl
ISON
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^1
CIRCLE 898 ON READER SERVICE CARO OR GO TO WWW.PCMAG COM ProductLmk
Rrst Looks
TERMINAL EMULATORS
A Web Tool to Emulate
By Steve Rigney
C onnecting PCs to your
IBM mainftame, AS/400,
or Unix host has always
been an expensive and time-
consuming task. Now there’s an
alternative to the usual night-
mare of terminal emulation:
WebTerm Toolbox, Version
1.0, from White Pine Software.
Though it's a Web browser,
WebTerm lets you connect to a
stacks can be incompatible
with certain terminal-emulation
packages.
WebTerm provides 3270,
5250, and VT420 terminal emu-
lators and consists of two pieces
of software: the administration
utility and the browser plug-in.
WebTerm Admin ($1^) runs
on a Windows PC and allows
you to configure your host con-
nections. The terminal ^ug-in —
you can then customize with
WebTerm Admin. You can
change the basic appearance of
the terminal and in some cases
the size of the window. And you
can even choose to add the
clicking sound of a particular
terminal keyboard.
The Admin utility’s macro-
scripting language is another
useful feature that makes set-
ting up terminal emulation easi-
er. You can use the macro lan-
guage to define a button on
your Web page that automati-
cally logs a user onto the host.
You can also set up buttons to
. I. Vr4^
I - I ~ I.
J
^ I Plug It In: You can connecf
J J to your host using any Web
I I I
I — •I'— I
Tk$ m Iw Mnt fflUL ftatrMrd by Ek WtbTnm fi IwnirMni
■ AMA*e<aM(.AckNS.99lKi.atdiwlk.cD»dUr«4mAt>AVP«(lAic
■ Cn<Mkafcii>Mi4ncMe(£KiMfi«*fli^e«lMmlwvt»UMdMbMlippkMga
ky*f* ■ aiNcb ym mM
browser that works with
Netscape Plug-ins.
close a connection and refresh
your screen automatically. In
case you don’t want to learn the
scripting language. WebTerm
Admin's Watch Me feature can
record all of your keystrokes
and save them in a macro script.
WebTerm also allows you to
map the numerous function
keys of a terminal to keys on
vour PC keyboard: most client-
host without bulky software or
configuration information on
network clients. The prculuci
makes creating a terminal link
to a host for hundreds of com-
puters a straightforward, .30-
minute process.
Traditional terminal-emula-
tion packages are expensive —
as much as $1(K) per PC;
WebTerm is $69 per client li-
cense. More important, termi-
nal emulators are bearish to in-
stall and configure. You have to
set up the packages individually
on each PC, and in many cases
terminal-emulation software is
not available for machines run-
ning such operating systems as
Macintosh and OS/2. Also, to
connect to a host you typically
use TCP/IP, and thou^ some
problems in setting up clients
with TCP/IP have been alleviat-
ed now that Miaosoft Windows
95 and Windows NT include
their own protocol stacks, these
Pick One: You can
use WebTerm Admin
to choose the kind of
terminal screen you
want to embed in
your Web page.
available for Windows
3x Windows 95. and
Windows NT. as well as
Macintosh — wt>rks with
any browser capable of handling
Netscape Power Plug-ins — that
is. Netscape Navigator 2.0 and
later, and Microsoft Internet Ex-
plorer 3.0 and later.
The heart of WebTerm is the
Admin utility, which is where
you define what users see. The
program is extremely easy to
use: You simply pick a terminal
type, provide the IP address of
the host, and generate a Web
page. The resulting page em-
beds a basic terminal screen in
an HTML document, which
based terminal-emulation pro-
grams require that radio but-
tons on the screen serve as
function keys.
You must install the
WebTerm Plug-in on every
client PC that needs access to
a host. The Plug-in doesn’t
launch, however, unless you
attach it to a URL that has an
embedded terminal emulator.
If users don’t have the Plug-in
installed when connecting to
a host site, they can download
it from the Webserver. It only
takes a few minutes to down-
load and install it — compared
with the 30 minutes or more
needed to install and config-
ure most terminal-emulation
products. Furthermore, with
WebTerm you don't have to
change any software on the
client PCs when you make a
change on the host. You just
change the settings in Web-
Term Admin and reembed the
terminal in the Web page.
Another unique feature of
WebTerm is its ability to open
several terminal sessions on a
single Web page. For example,
on our tests we embedded 3270,
5250, and VT420 leiminals in a
single HTML document. We
then connected the terminals to
three different hosts, each with
a different location and IP ad-
dress. Then to move among the
different hosts, we simply
clicked on the one we wanted
with t)ur mouse. Similarly, you
can have multiple terminal ses-
sions for the same host in a sin-
gle Web page.
While WebTerm can provide
relief from the problems of PC-
ba.sed terminal emulators, there
are a few things
missing in this ver-
sion. WebTerm
doesn’t provide any
encryption technol-
ogy nor does it work
with Netscape’s Se-
cure Socket Layer
(SSL). And the
plug-in is only avail-
able for Windows
and Macintosh cli-
ents. so if you need
to connect OS/2 or
DOS PCs. you need anotherso-
lution. White Pine plans to fix
the plug-in problem in the next
release and add the ability to
work both with ActiveX scripts
and more terminal types, includ-
ing HP 700, X Window, and
Unisys systems.
WebTerm Toolbox 1.0. List price:
WebTerm Admin. $169; Web-
Term Plug-in, $69 per license.
White Pine Software Inc.,
Nashua, NH; 603-886-9050; fax,
603-886-9051; www.wpine.com.
Circle 953 on reader service card
NE18 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
The fastest, most reliable connection available today.
So what are you waiting for?
lyi Wlidows 95 ipprivei. DIVA 2.0 includes a solution package
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DIVA ISDN reduces expensive wailing time and
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■VTU^/^IODIHQDIQ
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Conpatiklllty. DIVA
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CIRCLE 909 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Copyrighted material
switching when-
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Spedflcations subiect to change without notice. Ail trademarks are properties of their respective companies.
Copyrighted material
NETWORK EDITION
First Looks
ISON ROUTERS
The RO-1 Gold Is On Fire
By Les Freed
n updated, lower-price
model of Symplex Com-
munication Corp.’s single-
line ISDN router, the RO-1. the
$999 Symplex RO-1 Gold offers
features not always found in
small-office routers. It has IP
firewall and dynamic IP-ad-
dressing capabilities, making it a
good choice for connecting a
small LAN to the Internet.
Our only complaint about
the RO-1 Gold is the same one
we had about its predecessor:
There is no voice support. Many
competing products — Ascend
Communications* Pipeline 75
and ZyXEL Communications’
Prestige 28641, for example —
provide one or two analog
POTS jacks that allow you to
use a modem, fax, or voice tele-
phone on the ISDN line.
But despite this shortcoming,
RO-1 Gold addresses two basic
concerns: the expense of router
access to the Internet and the se-
curity risk that IP routers pose.
Most Internet service pro-
viders (ISPs) charge more for
router access than for ordinary
ISDN dial-up access. Users with
ISDN terminal adapters get as-
signed IP addresses each time
they connect, but a router re-
quires a dedicated IP address as
well as a block of IP addresses
for the PCs being connected.
This mean extra administrative
overhead for the ISP, hence the
higher cost.
The RO-1 Gold appears to
the ISP as a terminal adapter.
So the RO-1 Gold accepts the
address assigned by the ISP
and communicates with the
ISP’s router using that dy-
namic address.
As for security, the RO-1
Gold's built-in IP Hrewall lets
you allow or deny access to any
IP protocol based on source,
destination address, or both.
The RO-1 Gold also provides
an event log, so you can track
attempted firewall violations.
Like most small ISDN
routers, the RO-1 Gold is a
modem-size package with an
external power transformer. The
rear panel includes connectors
for the ISDN line, an RS-232
configuration terminal, and
an auto-switching 10Base5/-
lOBase-T Ethernet port.
Symplex has made installing
and configuring the RO-1 Gold
as easy as possible. Typically,
installing a new router in a
multinode, multiprotocol net-
work is time consuming. Each
router must know the network
addresses and phone numbers
of other routers on the WAN.
Collecting and entering this in-
formation is tedious, and one
mistake can take hours to track
down. If you connect the RO-1
Gold to another RO-1 or to
Symplex’s larger routers, the
DirectRoute DR-ls, the
routers learn one another’s
routing information automati-
cally. Symplex calls this Silent
Routing.
First-time installation re-
quires you to attach a PC or ter-
minal to the RO-1 Gold’s serial
connection, but subsequent con-
hguration changes can be made
over the LAN or WAN. A built-
in configuration script, a one-
page quick-start card, and a well-
organized menu system guide
you through installation, which
takes about 10 minutes.
The RO-1 Gold can connect
to two host routers at once, one
on each ISDN B-channel. This
allows a remote office to be con-
nected to the main office on one
channel and to the Internet on
the other. If both B-channels are
available, the RO-1 Gold can
combine them into one 128-
Kbps channel using the industry-
standard Multilink PPP.
Symplex RO-1 Gold. List price:
$999. Symplex Communications
Corp., Ann Arbor, MI; 313-995-
1555; fax 313-995-1564; www
.symplex.com. Circle 951 on
reader service card.
MULTIPLE ACCESS ByFrankJ. Derfler, Jr.
Get Rich Before 2007
PC Moj^azine may have helped more people be-
come wealthy than any other publication, but we
don’t talk about it. In this iuiniversary edition. I'd
like to share some advice on how to get rich in
the next decade. Here are four paths to wealth.
1. Dig into interface hardware. The ever-
dropping cost of processing power and
memory, along with the new IEEE 1394 and USB
ports, make oncc-exotic man/machine interfaces
practical. Voice commands, eye flicks, heads-
up displays, and even more intimate physio-
logical interfaces really will change our re-
lationship with PCs. Those who have done
the groundwork will prosper — for a while.
2. Broker subscriber data services. There is room for
a travel agent between frame relay/ ATM transport
providers and the passengers. As frame relay replaces
I leased lines, turmoil and FUD will be high. Someone who
can figure out the fees, compare the services, offer unbiased
I advice, and make the matches can do well in areas with
I many competing services. If you have a combination of tech-
I nical, research, and marketing skills, you can sell the same
S information in many different forms.
3. Be wireless. Like the airline business after World War II, the
wireless WAN business is poised to take off. And as the air-
lines took on the railroads, wireless WAN companies with a
single FCC license can come into an area and compete with
cable and telephone companies who have been living under
layers of regulation for decades. There’s no contest: I'he wire-
less vendors will skim the cream and leave the others to haul
the dull, heavy stuff. But it might not be so easy to tell Delta
and American from Eastern and Pan Am.
The wireless business is now' cut horizontally by companies
selling transport hardware and software, and vertically by
companies selling specialized applications. TransfH>rt and
interface technologies of the Internet will make hori-
zontal iransptirl invisible and erase the walls be-
tween appliaitions. There are gains to be made in
wireless WANs for software developers and
gcKKi aush flt>w for people w ho can sell.
4. Broker local content. .Movies-on-demand
are a bust, so w ork the basics. Before they look
for fancy value-added stuff, people w ant less has-
sle and better access to basic services. Gather school
lunch menus, help people buy stamps and check on li-
brar> books, set up traffic cams, or perform one of a thou-
sand other local-content services. Then sell it over and
over — to local and national ISPs, to developers, and to
broadcasters of all kinds.
These are four surefire hits for the next decade. If you
don't get rich, it won’t be my fault.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE NE23
SOFTWARE/NETWORKED APPLICATION
I M I>
HARDWARE
Communications Devices
Diagnostic/Management/Test .
Hubs/Routers/Bridges
Network Interface Cards
Mass Storage/Network Backup
Power Supplies/UPS
Printers/Print Devices
Systems/Servers
E X
SOFTWARE
Business Applications
Diagnostic/Management/Test
Networked Applications NE24
SERVICES
Consultants/Systems Development
Network Data Backup/Recovery
Vars/Systems Integrators
MISCELLANEOUS
Cables/Wiring/Connectors
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territory also Includes Canada & Alaska
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NE24 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
^■tod maierial
PREMIER
Jim Seymour
Web Follies: Checking E-Mail at 2 A.M
B oy, our Web access has gone to hell lately: endless dialing
and redialing to get through to perpetually busy lines at
ISPs; long waits for pages to load; lots of reloading of pages
that come in halfway and then die; getting dropped repeatedly.
Suddenly, the Web isn’t so much fun anymore.
And if you rely on Internet e-mail as opposed to a pro-
prietary system such as cc:Mail, well, plan to do without
e-mail access for extended periods. In addition to checking
my e-mail frequently during the workday, 1 also need to
check in the evening. But access to the
Web between about 7 P.M. and 1 1 P.M.
through almost every ISP has gotten
nearly impossible. So now I’m getting
used to the unlovely idea of getting up
at 2 or 3 A.M. to check my e-mail. It’s
an awful idea— 45 minutes to an hour of
reading e-mail does not make it easy to go
back to sleep in the middle of a splintered
night. But sometimes it’s a necessity.
This is a genuinely Big Deal for many
of us who need reliable, near-instant
Web access. The bad news: It’s not going
to get better anytime soon. The worse
news: The real culprits here aren't Micro-
soft, the government, evil telephone com-
panies. or any of the other bogeymen
we love to blame for our computer prob-
lems. The culprit is us.
Since the $19.95-per-month, unlim-
ited-access pricing model became so
popular in the middle of last year, the
quality of Web access has been spiral-
ing downward. Though America Online
has taken a lot of heat after moving
to that pricing in November, good ol’
“America Offline’’ has been no worse
than many other Web access entities. It
lakes forever to get online at busy times
with The Microsoft Network, NetCom.
AT&T WorldNel, or almost any other ISP you can name.
The underlying problem is a fundamental change in the
way we use the Web. U comes as no news that Web use has
grown phenomenally since late 1995. Estimates of the rate
of growth in demand are all over the lot: Pick a number
and you’ll find a Web consultant preaching it. The exact
rate of growth in demand for Web hours isn’t important
anymore: It’s not just off the charts, it’s beyond what pres-
ent market mechanisms can handle.
The move to $19.95-per-month, unlimited-use billing
was a natural and enormously popular response to that
growth in demand. It was also the worst possible scenario
for Web access reliability. People suddenly ignored how
much connect time they were building up. Hey. if you have
to pay a $20 admission fee at the gate, but everything’s free
after that, why would you worry?
Two more complications then emerged. The first was
the move toward the Web as an enter-
tainment venue. The obvious example is
MSN2, the revamped Microsoft Network
that was rolled out a couple of months
ago. With a determined focus on deliver-
ing “shows’’— -comedy, insight, what-
ever — Microsoft moved hundreds of
thousands of Web users to a usage model
unlike anything we'd seen before. Instead
of jumping on the Web to look up some-
thing, read the morning’s headlines, or
check the weekend weather forecast, peo-
ple now park themselves in front of their
PCs for hours on end, the same way couch
potatoes fixate on their TVs.
The second complication is the funda-
mental change in how we use the Web
that I mentioned a minute ago. Increas-
ingly, Web users plug into the Web in
the morning and stay connected all day.
Many use programs like the shareware
tool Ponger32 to keep “pinging” the Web
so that the ISP doesn’t drop the connec-
tion after x minutes of inactivity. Instead
of accumulating perhaps one hour of
Web connect lime during the course of
a workday or an evening at home, Web
users started locking up phone lines
and Web connections for 10 or 12 hours
a day, or more.
And that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
We should note that this collapse happened not only in
terms of the quality and reliability of Web access but also
in terms of a telephone user’s ability to get a dial tone for a
voice call. Californians know the symptoms of the problem
well: More than 40 percent of all Web connections begin or
end in California, and that volume, in addition to users’
newfound penchant for semipermanent Web connections,
have wreaked havoc on Californians' phone service. They
can no longer count on hearing a dial tone when they pick
up their telephones.
We’re seeing several kinds of responses to this problem.
BUSY SIGNALS
The underlying
problem is a
fundamental
change in the
way we use
the Web.
MARCH 25. 1W7 PC MAGAZINE 93
Copyrighted material
Jim Seymour
Power 8 Cooling lUvisop
1 Nasty, hard-to-track problems such as interference, rebooting, overheating,
• and hard drive read/write errors are often power supply related.
Z Mju can’t have too much power. A power supply delivers only what the PC
• needs and actually performs best at 30%-70% of its rated capacity.
3 An upgrade power supply with heavy-duty input capacitors and magnetics
• provides protection against line voltage sags and surges.
4 The most common cooling problem is premature failure of a sleeve-bearing
• fan. Ball-bearing fans last 10 times longer.
5 The Arrhenius equation relates the longevity of a component to its operating
■ temperature. Each 18°F (10°C) reduction increases component life by T00%.
B To save money, PC manufacturers put ordinary power supplies and CPU
• heat sinks in their systems. TO UPGRADE, SEE PAGE M!
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CIRCLE 260 ON READER SERVICE CARO
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ISPs arc starting to monitor connections more
closely, dropping customers* connections after
just a few minutes of inactivity. (After all. say
the ISPs, unlimited access doesn't mean non-
stop access.) ISPs are starting to raise their
prices, too, moving to tiered pricing, such as
$30 per month for guaranteed access or $20
per month for “lots o* luck” access.
Telephone companies — the RBOCs, or
former Regional Bell Operating Companies,
such as NYNEX, Pacific Bell, and Sou^west-
ern Bell — are also coming up with answers,
ranging from the technical to the punitive.
They’re worried about both their increasing
inability to provide reliable dial tones for busi-
ness and residential voice customers (which
is. after all. their primary business) and their
own profits.
Both are big issues. We need reliable dial
tones for voice calls — for emergency calls to
91 1 , for example — and we can't lose that. And
since in most areas RBOCs deliver flat-rate
local dial tones — systems in which you pay $1S
per month, say, for unlimited local phone ser-
vice rather than per-minule charges as you do
for long distance — RBOC planners are terri-
fied that we're placing all these essentially fi'ee,
hours-long calls to ISPs. We'll see continuing
pressure from RBOCs at federal, state, and
local levels to adopt what they consider to be
a fairer rate plan. If they can't get that, the
RBOCs mutter darkly, they won't be able to
afford to increase their physical plant rapidly
enough, and reliable dial tones for voice calls
will become a thing of the past
On the technical front, RBOCs are looking
for ways to manage data-call demand. SBC
Communications (a.k.a. Southwestern Bell)
and Northern Telecom have a promising new
idea called Internet Transport Service. ISPs
that sign up for ITS replace their racks of mo-
dems with ports that connect directly to their
local telephone company. These data calls are
then moved not over the usual voice-grade line
but over a new high-speed network, as packets.
(Note the spin: Though this is pitched as a
quicker, cheaper, more-reliable Web connec-
tion, the big beneficiaries will in fact be the
phone companies themselves, since they will be
moving this traffic over more-efficient packet-
switched networks rather than over voice lines.)
I doubt that we’ll really change our habit
of longer Web connect times. Instead, we'II
pay twice as much as we do now — for Web
access almost as reliable as it once was.
You don’t like that? Me neither. Send me
your ideas, n
94. PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
Bill Howard
Hardware Must-Haves
I ts possible today to navigate door-to-door to most parts of the
U.S. with uncanny accuracy, using a system made up of an in-
vehicle GPS receiver, a CD-ROM, a microprocessor, and an in-
dashboard active-matrix LCD. When you reach your destination.
the voice command that also tells you where to turn says,
“You have arrived.” Of course, to use it, you will have to
have arrived yourself, because the system that works best
costs $2,800 and is available only in a new BMW.
You don’t have to buy a luxury sports sedan to take
advantage of this technology, however.
You can get aftermarket add-ons that use
the Global Positioning System (GPS)
network for about $1 ,000 to $2,000. And
I’ve found a GPS-pIus-road-atlas pack-
age for $150 that provides half the func-
tionality for a twentieth of the cost —
just add a laptop. This is my favorite of
the several useful (and in some cases,
fun) PC hardware devices I’ve used and
tested recently.
The DeLonne Tripmate Hyperlormance
GPS Navigation Device is a radar detector-
size, canary-yellow GPS receiver that sits
on your dashboard and connects via se-
rial cable to a notebook PC running De-
Lorme’s Street Atlas USA 4.0 (provided).
You’ll be able to see, within a few car
lengths, where you are on virtually any
street in the U.S. The Tripmate doesn’t
provide route directions, but it can look up
any street in the atlas and then, by zoom-
ing in or out. show you where you are and
where you’re trying to go. If your note-
book doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive, you
can transfer some of the map info (cover-
ing anything from a metropolitan region
to several states) from the CD to your
hard disk. Yes, it looks kind of geeky, but
the Tripmate really does help you find
your way. ($150 street; 800-452-5931; www.delorme.com.)
7’he Xerox DocuPrint 4512 is a small workgroup printer
I’ve favored for a long time as the ultimate personal
printer. It’s a compact, duplexing, two-bin, 12-page-
per-minute, 600-dpi, PCL/PostScript laser printer with
a- built-in networking option. As we all know, the office
isn’t yet paperless. Using duplexing and the PostScript
2-up to 8-up option, each sheet of paper can hold at
least four readable pages of information. Tlie print qual-
ity is great. For the money. HP doesn’t have anything
close to the DocuPrint 4512. ($1,445 street with Post-
Script 2; 800-349-3769; www.xerox.com.)
The Tenba CBP series ($100 to $200 list) is the best line
of backpacks I’ve seen. The Computer Traveler B series
shoulder bags ($180 to $290 list) have nifty, removable
backpack harnesses, and the Computer Air Cases ($350 to
$620) are rugged, semisoft shipping cases. Because the
Tenba shoulder bags I used were either
too small or too big and lacked sufficient
interior pockets, the Tenba product I
like best is the BPS accessory harness
($30) that lets you convert virtually any
shoulder bag into a backpack. Just have
a good luggage-repair shop sew the in-
cluded D-rings onto your bag. (212-966-
1013; www.tenha.cont)
One of the hottest secondary uses for
a PC this year will be home and business
video-editing, and the neatest tool may
be the much-enhanced version of the Pin-
nacle Systems Video Director, the Video
Director 200. A little black box connects
to your parallel port, camcorder, and
VCR. When you play a tap>e from your
camcorder, the black box watches, de-
tects scene changes (it's pretty accurate),
and pops up a tiny icon on-screen of the
scene’s first frame. You can drag and
drop scene icons to assemble a tape in the
order you want, add transitions and titles,
then hit the make-tape button and walk
away. True, this still isn’t nonlinear edit-
ing; that is, you aren’t storing video on
your PC’s hard disk. In a year or two,
you’ll be able to compress video well
enough to do it on your hard disk, but for
now, this is a tremendous leap forward.
Workgroups that have to edit down videotape will find this
cheaper than going out to an editing studio, but be warned:
You still have to invest a lot of time watching the tape roll.
($300 street; 888-484-3366; www.pinnaciesys.com.)
The Pori DefCon 1 motion-sensing alarm looks like
a cellular phone and connects to your notebook via a
cable and your notebook’s Kensington-lock slot. If any
part of the setup is jostled, an alarm sounds. I wish
the alarm were louder and I wish it weren’t so easy to
lose the locking plug, but overall, this is a handy device
that will scare off most hotel thieves. ($50 street; 800-242-
3133; www.portinc.com.) n
AFFORDABLE GPS
Yes, it looks
kind of geeky,
but the Tripmate
really does
help you find
your way.
a!
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 95
TO WILLIAM WEGMAN
(world famous artisl/photographer)
IT’S A LAPDOG
OLYMPUS DIGITAL VISION
I CAN NOW STORE HY OOGS DIGITAUY.
AND CREATE NEW GAMES FOR THEM TO PLAY.**
The crealion never ends. First the color LCD
screen of the new Olympus digital camera
lets him preview the shot he's alx>ut to capture.
He doesn't wait, he c1uk>scs only what he likes.
Then the high resolution digital sensor* captures
the image. In 24 hit color, rich and luxuriant.
•« rrs NOT QUITE MAN’S BEST FRIEND.
BUT rrs PRETTY CLOSE.**
Next he pulls the image directly and instantly
from the camera into the computer. Now the
choices are limitless: creating many images
from one, enhancing, retouching, adding and
subtracting color, combining different photos
into one. E»mailing everything aci\>ss the Internet
and putting it all on a Web page. Yes. you can
advertise, pictoriali^te. verbalize, specialize
and economize. And yes. you can create a
digital doghouse to store your archives.
All with the Olympus D-200L and D-300L.
All with The Ait and Science of Imaging.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL VISION
TO JARON LANIER
(digerati, composer, a pk>ncer in Virtual Reality)
IT*S VIRTUALLY UNREAL
It’s the new age of photography. The first step
in the digital dream. And it's epitomized by the
creation of the new generation of digital cameras.
The Olympus D-200L and D-300L. Optics, design,
compactness, simplicity, affordability, (all Olympus
benchmarks) are here. With an addendum:
digital imagery. It’s Art and Science united.
The Yin of the Portrait, the Yang of the Computer.
He's aware it's an Olympus lens. F2.8, a.spherical,
ra/or-sharp, focus-free; the automatic Hash has
4 shooting modes: the resolution is striking.
Now colors burst with vibrancy, images suspend
belief, saturation goes richer, speed rules. But what
excites him is this: it’s the gateway into a fluid
world. It's being able to manipulate the picture,
make variations on a theme, shape it, tune it, turn it
into a starting point for imagination. It's world
grabbing. It’s ongoing gratification. It's Olympus.
^ *«rrs THE CAMERA ro TAKE
QNVACATIONTO
VIRTUAL REAUTV.’
THE ART & SCIENCE OF IMAGING^ ////A
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8:02AM -“Mr. Lawson, the Chairman wants to see
your quarterly report in his office. The one with the
singing and dancing pie charts. By 1 1 AM. Sharp.”
8:05AM -“Help me out, Tom. The Engineering VP
wants to copy our schematics this morning.
Can you take your notebook there and use your
Fast Infrared port?”
8:22AM -“Mr. Lawson, just a reminder, 9:30 video
conference with the Frankfurt office. They
received the spreadsheets you e-mailed yesterday.”
8:34AM -“Thanks for those schematic files, buddy.
By the way, your new notebook’s under 5 pounds
and mine’s almost 9. You’re giving me 4 strokes
on the golf course, pal.”
9:17AM -“Lawson, the CIO says 100BaseT Fast
Ethernet is the way to go for our new office
downtown. Your new notebook can access the
network easily. ”
10:15AM-Tom, the data you need is on multimedia CD.
Bring your notebook to Marketing.”
10:33AM -Guten Morgen, Thomas. Very good conference
call this morning. Sales are up as your analysis
predicted. The spreadsheets really helped.”
11:30AM -“Tom, this is the Chairman. Great presentation.
You’re going to our test site in the Mojave Desert
with the Engineering VP, my friend. It’s a full day
of meetings, so bring an extra battery and a
sleeping bag. There’s no electricity. ”
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INTRODUCTION OF THE PC
A history of the technology
that changed our world.
By Michael J. Miller
O n August 12, 1981, IBM execu-
tives held a press conference in
New York to introduce a
momentous new com- ^
puter — the IBM Per-
sonal Computer, or
the PC, as it became known.
Immediately thereafter, work
began on a new magazine,
which would publish its first
issue in early 1982 — PC Magazine.
Today, 15 years later, both the
PC and PC Magazine are still
going strong. We celebrate the
continued success of both with this
issue. But while it would be tempt-
ing to start our history with the
first issue of PC Magazine, or even with
the introduction of the IBM PC, that
would leave out too much of the story.
The personal computer industry dates
back to the introduction of the first micro-
1*71 Intel
develops
the 4004,
the first micro-
processor.
fti ouLvE lutron ta;
• RhalUMnlaOMcM..
'AllAltIMr MM •VMM*
ffTS MITSAItair kit computer,
an electronic hobbyisf s dream,
comes to life for only $397.
nMa eouriMv of MkroMll •rchivM.
processor, the Intel 4004, in 1971. But the
industry really took off following the Jan-
uary 1975 issue of the Ziff-Davis
magazine Popular Electronics,
which trumpeted the “Project
Breakthrough!” of the Altair
" > 8800, from MITS, which
^ the magazine dubbed “the
world's first minicomputer kit
to rival commercial models.”
By today’s standards, that ini-
tial kit developed by Ed Roberts,
who headed MITS, a small elec-
tronics company in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, was quite limited.
It was based on Intel’s 8080 mi-
croprocessor and had only 256
bytes of memory.
Priced at a very affordable $397, the
Altair was the first personal computer
widely available to the general public. It
attracted hundreds of orders
from electronics en-
thusiasts.
One who noticed
this seminal event
was a young Honey-
well programmer
named Paul Allen,
who showed the
Popular Electronics
article to an old
1971 Steve Wozniak (left) and Steve Jobs start
Apple Computer in the Jobs family garage.
Photo courtKv el Appit CoowHir.
friend, a Harvard freshman named Bill
Gates. The pair quickly joined forces to
write a version of BASIC for the Altair.
Soon, Allen went to work for MITS as its
director of software, and shortly thereafter
Gates left Harvard to join Allen in Albu-
querque and to start a company that
would later be named Microsoft. (Anoth-
er early MITS employee, David Bunnell,
would later start a number of computer
magazines, including PC Magazine.)
With the Altair’s introduction, the per-
sonal computer industry took off. The year
1977 saw an explosion of interest in person-
al computers and the introduction of a long
succession of machines — the
Commodore PET, the Radio
Shack TRS-80, and most im-
portant, Steve Wozniak and
Steve Jobs’s Apple II.
197S Schoolmates Paul Allen
(left) and Bill Gates go corporate
and establish their own company,
Mkrosoft
PtwiD'. spmo* Am wp a ppff cp f-
p jgm
108 PCMAGAZINE MARCH 2S.1997
Ckipyrighted material
1f79 VisiCalc demonstrates that a
personal computer can be a serious
business machine for anybody.
Phcto courusv 0* BrcUn.
The Apple II quickly devel-
oped into its own standard,
helped out enormously by Wozn I
ak's 1978 design for an inexpensive flop-
py disk drive and — even more important —
by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston’s
VisiCalc. the first electronic spreadsheet.
With the introduction of VisiCalc, business
ms Intel 8086 pro-
vides 16-bit power and
is the initial choice for
the IBM PC
people suddenly had a reason for using per-
sonal computers. It wasn’t just a hobbyist's
world anymore.
The rest of the decade saw dozens of
very different designs, as one
new company after another
tried to define a unique com-
bination of power, price, per-
formance, and features. Ma-
chines introduced in this
period ranged from offerings
for home and hobbyist users—
such as Commodore's Vic-20 and 64,
Atari’s 400 series, and Texas Instruments’
TI 99 — to more business-oriented de-
vices, such as a series of machines from
Tandy/Radio Shack and a host of designs
that ran Digital Research’s operating sys-
tem CP/M, which was written by personal
computing pioneer Gary Kildall.
Because the market was growing so
fast, and because in those early days back-
ward compatibility didn’t mean much, the
time was marked by a period of hardware
creativity never seen since. And of course,
software began to grow as well, with the
rapid appearance of a variety of early pro-
gramming languages, games, and even
The Perfect PC
PROCESSOR: lnteM.77-MHz 8088
MEMORY: 64K
STORAGE: Single-sided, I60K S.2S-lnch
floppy disk drive
DISPLAY: 12-inch monochrome
OS: PC-DOS1.0
Price: $2,880
Join m OrUm at www.pcnag.com to dlKuss the eariy days of the PC
DAVID BUNNELL
I started nr
Mapaz/ne in the
fall of 1981 in the
spare bedroom
of my house
near Golden
Gate Park in San Francisco. At the
time, I had this naive idea that I
could run the magazine out of the
house using freelancers to do
the design and production. Before
the first issue came out, however,
there were 14 full-time people
working In my house. The living
room quickly became the art
production room, as the work
proved to be too much for the
freelancers. The dining room was
the sales and circulation depart-
ment. The spare bedroom became
the editorial office, where Jim
Ediin and I wrote most of the
articles. We also had a "PC Lab,”
but as we explained in the first
issue, "at present time we have
N neither a lab facility
nor solemn people
with white coats. "
We decided
that we would
open a bottle of
champagne on
the first day we had enough mail
that the postman had to deliver
it in a bag. The very next day, he
brought two mailbags, full of
subscription forms and checks. We
celebrated. And a few days later,
we celebrated again, when both
IBM and Microsoft signed up to be
charter advertisers. In that
first issue, we also trashed the
PC’s first word processor-a pro-
gram called EasyWriter-in a review
by Andrew Fluegelman, which we
titled "Not-So-EasyWriter." I like
to think we thereby established PC
Mapaz/neas the place PC users
could rely on to find honest, hard-
hitting product reviews-a tradition
that has endured as the magazine
has grown into one of the most
successful periodicals of all time.
MAROr 25. IV97 PC MAGAZINE 109
ATIONS BY JACK HAMRf&VISUAl LOGIC PHOTO I
LOOKING BACK
business applications, such as
the popular word processor
WordStar.
Before long, nobody
viewed personal computers
as toys or hobbies but as de-
vices for personal productivi-
ty with clear business applica-
tions. The era of the personal
computer was firmly estab-
lished. And IBM. which long
had dominated mainframe
computers, wanted a piece of
the action.
The IBM of 1980. much
more than the IBM of today,
was not a company accustomed to fast-
moving markets and consumer sales. It sold
business machines — primarily computers
and typewriters — to businesses, using its
own technology and relying very heavily on
a very structured system of sales and ser-
vice to large accounts.
nn Apple II
hits the market.
Photo eourtisv oI BYTt
The PC busi-
ness required
something dif-
ferent. This new market was moving quite
fast, and a new entrant would have to
move quickly. And it would need to target
individuals as well as businesses, even if the
ultimate aim was to continue to sell busi-
ness computers. This is what William C.
Lowe, laboratory director of IBM’s Entry
Level Systems (ELS) unit in Boca Raton.
Florida, told IBM’s Corporate Manage-
ment Committee, including IBM president
John Opel, in July 1980.
Lowe told the committee that IBM
needed to build a personal computer and
that there was room in the market that
Apple and others had left untapped. But.
he told the committee, it couldn’t be
built within IBM’s standard culture of
the time. So they gave him the freedom
to recruit 12 engineers to form a task
force, called Project Chess, and to build
a prototype computer.
In the next month. Lowe’s task force
1WI Osborne 1 demonstrates that portability
is an early dream.
PhoU; Thi Computtr Museum Hinory Ctnor
had a number of meetings
with other players in the
young industry and made a
number of key decisions that
ultimately would affect the
PC business for years to
come. One was the decision
to sell IBM's personal com-
puter through retail stores in
addition to offering it
through IBM’s own commis-
sioned sales staff. But perhaps
the company's most impor-
tant decision was to use an
“open architecture": to
choose the basic components
and operating system from sources out-
side of IBM. It was a big departure for
IBM. which up to that point typically had
designed all the major components of its
machines.
In August. Lowe and two engineers. Bill
Sydnes and Lew Eggebrecht. demonstrated
a prototype to the Corporate Man-
agement Committee, which ap-
proved the basic plan and gave
Project Chess the go-ahead to
create a personal computer,
code-named Acorn.
To head the group that
pulled it together. Lowe
turned to Philip D. "Don"
Estridge. another longtime IBM
employee, who worked at the
Boca Raton labs. Estridge re-
cruited a team that included
Sydnes. who headed engineer-
ing. Dan Wilkie, who was in
charge of manufacturing, and H.L.
“Sparky” Sparks, who headed sales.
One early decision they had to make
was to choose the processor to power the
PC. The task force had decided they want-
ed a 16-bit computer, because it would be
more powerful and easier to program than
existing 8-bit machines. Intel had recently
announced the 16-bit 8086. but Sydnes later
said that IBM was concerned that the 8086
would be too powerful and compete too
much with other IBM entries.
So instead they chose the 8088. a ver-
sion of the chip that had an 8-bit bus and a
16-bit internal structure. This 8-bit tech-
nology offered the added benefit of work-
ing with existing 8-bit expansion cards and
with relatively inexpensive 8-bit devices,
such as controller chips, which could thus
be incorporated easily and inexpensively
into the new machine.
Another key decision was software. In
July, members of the task force went to
visit Digital Research to ask the firm to
port its CP/M operating system to the
8086 architecture. Legend has it that
founder Gary Kildall was flying his plane
at the time. Whatever the reason. Kildall’s
wife. Dorothy, and DR’s attorneys didn’t
sign the nondisclosure agreement IBM
presented. So the IBM team left
and flew north to Seattle to
meet with Microsoft, from
which they had hoped to ob-
tain a version of BASIC.
Microsoft officials signed
an agreement with IBM for
BASIC, and soon Bill Gates
and company were discussing
not only BASIC but also an oper-
ating system. Quickly thereafter,
Microsoft acquired an 8086 oper-
ating system that had various
names, including Quick and Dirty
DQS. or QDQS. written by Tim
Patterson at a company called Seattle
Computer Products. Microsoft further de-
veloped this operating system and licensed
it to IBM, which sold it as PC-DQS.
Fevered months of putting together
the hardware and software ensued. Then,
on Wednesday. August 12. 1981. almost
exactly a year after Project Chess was
given the go-ahead, IBM introduced the
IBM Personal Computer. Sold initially at
ComputerLand outlets and Sears Busi-
ness Centers, that first PC — with an 8088
CPU. 64K of RAM, and a single-sided,
160K floppy disk drive — had a list price
of $2,880.
When the IBM PC shipped in Octo-
ber. Estridge — by then considered the fa-
ther of the PC — and his team had a run-
away hit.
r Commodore
kicks off a line of several
popular but short-lived
machines with the PET.
Photo CDunesv of
th« Amencin Compulot Mussum
IW1 IBM
finally makes it
to the dance
with its IBM PC.
110 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
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LOOKING BACK
RLY YEARS
Thai original IBM
PC had some
great features —
and some clear
limitations. It had
a 4.77-MHz Intel 8088 processor, trum-
peted as a "high-speed 16-bit micro-
processor." but the PC had only an 8-bil
data bus. Initially, the machine came with
I6K RAM on the motherboard standard,
expandable to 64K, but its processor was
capable of more because its 20 address
bits permitted the PC
to address I megabyte
of physical memory,
which was a huge leap
forward at that time.
While the PC was ca-
pable of displaying
graphics, you had
to buy an optional
graphics card to do
this because the base
machine had only a
monochrome adapter.
And of course, the ad-
vertised price didn't
include a monitor — or even a serial or
parallel port.
Limitations aside, it was an immediate
hit. Beginning in the fall, according to
IDC, IBM sold 35.000 machines by the
end of 1981, and overall sales were five
times initial projections. In part, the sales
effort was helped by a brilliant marketing
campaign featuring the Little Tramp, the
character Charlie Chaplin popularized in
movies such as Modem Times.
The technical limitations of the original
PC helped spark development of other,
third-party markets. For example, the 8-
bit data bus opened the door for add-on
board manufacturers, which almost imme-
diately started offering boards that had se-
rial or parallel ports, graphics adapters, or
extra memory up to 256K per board.
These boards could be combined so that
the machine could
use the full 640K
of the processor's
1MB of space allo-
cated to physical
memory address-
es. Different ven-
dors offered a wide
variety of add-on
features. Major
early players in-
cluded Tecmar,
Ouadram, and
AST, which origi-
nally gained fame
with its Sixpack add-on card.
In software, the choices soon grew as
well. A BASIC language was included
with the PC, so many early users learned
the language, ported applications from
other systems, and created many inter-
esting utilities. In particular, longtime PC
Magazine columnist Peter Norton started
a small business providing inexpensive
but valuable PC utilities, and his compa-
ny’s rapid growth paced the multi-
19U Compaq ships
its first PC and the
clone wars begin in
earnest.
1982 The Lisa hints at the great strides
in graphical computing to come from Apple.
Photo couite«v o< Appit Compuw
1981
7//rteofTicially confirms
what PC users already
know.
Photo® ISOTnit Inc.
rtpnntid by ptrmif iion
billion-dollar utility
industry.
And of course,
there was a lot of software written specif-
ieally for the IBM PC. Besides providing
PC-DOS. IBM also announced support
for CP/M-86 and the UCSD p-System,
operating systems that provided a little
competition. In fact, there were a few pro-
grams written for each of those systems,
but it did not take long for PC-DOS to be-
come accepted as the standard.
When the PC shipped, IBM an-
nouneed a number of initial applications,
including VisiCalc, a series of accounting
programs from Peachtree Software, a
word processor called EasyWriter from
Information Unlimited Software (lUS),
and Microsoft Adventure.
In most cases, these products were
soon challenged by a variety of other
packages. For instance, though Easy-
Writer was first, more capable products —
including WordStar, then MultiMate and
later WordPerfect — eclipsed it over the
next several years.
In the spreadsheet arena, VisiCalc's
authors and publisher had a disagree-
ment that delayed future versions, and it
was soon challenged by new "integrated
software.” Most important was a new
program designed by
Mitch Kapor, who had
earlier designed a ehart-
ing package that worked
with VisiCalc on Apple II
machines. Kapor called
his new eompany Lotus
112 PC'MACiAZINt: MAKCHl‘5. IW7
Copyrighted material
LOOKING BACK
I
V!lltll|llll|||l I
Development Corp. and
named his product Lotus 1-
2-3. In the early days, 1-2-3
faced competition from
programs like Context
MBA, which relied on the
UCSD p-System, But 1-2-3
was written directly to the
video system of the IBM PC by-
passing DOS. As a result, it was mi IBM
fast, and it took over the PC mar- boosts its PC line
ket. Just as VisiCalc had been with the PC-XT.
the "killer application" for the
Apple II, Lotus 1-2-3 played that role
forthelBMPC.
And soon we saw a variety of pro-
grams in other fields, ranging from
programs that originally started life on
other platforms — such as Ashton-Tate’s
dBASE II — to many programs written
specifically for the IBM PC, including
Microsoft Flight Simu-
lator.
1981 Borland incorporates
with Philippe Kahn as its
chairman.
By 1983, most major
software developers
were writing their software for the IBM
PC, and the effect on most of the com-
peting machines was staggering. Many
companies that focused on earlier,
non-IBM hardware and software stan-
dards. such as Osborne Computer,
went out of business.
A number of competitors decided
that DOS (the generic term for the oper-
ating system Microsoft called MS-DOS
'■inl-
and IBM called PC-DOS) was
the standard, but compati-
bility across many machines
didn't come quite that eas-
ily. For a while, several
vendors offered machines
that were like the IBM PC,
"only belter.” The DEC
Rainbow offered compatibility
not only with the 8088 but also
with Z80 software. AT&T's 6300
and later the Texas Instruments
Professional offered better
graphics. And Microsoft soon pro-
nounced that DOS 2.x would become
the standard.
Despite this rush to DOS compatibili-
ty. all these machines ultimately failed,
primarily because they couldn't run all
the software that the IBM PC could.
Most of the popular early applications,
such as Lotus 1-2-3, WordStar, Super-
Calc. and MultiPlan. were DOS applica-
tions. but they were written to circum-
vent DOS and BIOS code to deal directly
with the IBM hardware for benefits like
faster displays. Some programs were
written for generic DOS and some were
ported to various new machines, but soon
every user wanted real IBM compatibili-
ty. Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Flight Sim-
ulator were universally used as IBM-
compatibility test programs, because they
were written in assembly language and
spoke directly to the PC's hardware. And
the PC standard really began to settle in.
In 1982 three former Texas Instruments
managers formed Compaq Computer
Corp. to create a true IBM-compatible
portable, which started shipping in March
The Perfect PC
PROCESSOR: Intel 8-MHz 8088
MEMORY: 256K
STORAGE: J60K 5.25-inch floppy disk
drive. lOMB hard disk
DISPLAY: 12-inch monochrome with
Hercules graphic card
OS: MS-DOS 2.0
Price: $4,995
r FRANK J. DERFLER, JR. ~|
I It was either
brilliance or
incompetence
that caused
IBM's PC design
team to leave
the system so Incomplete yet so
open for third-party developers. I
vote for brilliance. You could argue
that the incompleteness of the early
PC was a marketing necessity
because few buyers could afford a
fully capable system in one bite.
As a result, PC Magazine' i
readers spent much of the early
eighties adding multifunction
boards, graphics adapters, and hard
disks to their PCs. The September
1982 PC Magazine listed 282 hard-
ware products that could be In-
stalled inside the IBM PC, at that
point just one year old. Tecmar
offered a SMB hard
disk kit for $2,995.
Ouadram's Quad-
board, which added
the clock, serial
and parallel ports,
and memory IBM
left out, was $595 with 64K of
memory. With all of that money
at stake, objective comparative
evaluations were already important
to our readers. As PC Magazines
data communications editor, one of
the first products I examined was
the AST Combo Card, which included
networking in the form of Corvus
Systems' Omninet. The price was
more than $1,000-plus the RAM
chips. lnmydayjob,lwas
working on the acquisition of PCs
for the entire U.S. Air Force. We
estimated we'd end up buying 5,000
PCs, but that one contract ran to
over 140,000 systems in two years.
Perhaps at PC Magazine we're
still better off drilling down into
product details than predicting the
future. Above all, we're good at
sticking to what we do best.
MARCH 25.1997 PC MAGAZINE 113
LOOKING BACK
1983. While not strictly
the first compatible —
Columbia Data Systems
had shipped one
earlier — the Compaq
Portable showed that
there was a market for a
true IBM-compatible
machine while gaining
tremendous attention as
a portable PC. Of course,
in those days portable
meant a mere 28 pounds.
IBM wouldn’t introduce a similar ma-
chine until nearly a year later. And in the
following years the portable field would
become even more crowded as numerous
companies, including Data General,
Texas Instruments, Toshiba, NEC, and of
course, Compaq, raced each other to field
innovative, truly laptop computers that
not only could be carried on a plane but
also could be used on one.
Compaq followed its initial portable
PC introduction with its first desktop PC.
the Deskpro, in July 1984. and in the years
that followed, PC “clones” — portables
and desktops — would establish them-
selves as part of the industry standard.
In 1984, IBM tried to extend its stan-
dard in two ways. In March of that year, it
introduced the PCjr, a $1 ,300 8088-based
“home computer” that became known for
its infamous wireless keyboard with Chi-
clets-style keys. It flopped.
IBM had much more success with its
August introduction of the PC AT (for
Advanced Technology). Based on Intel’s
80286 processor, the AT cost nearly
$4,000 with 256K of RAM but no hard
disk or monitor. Models with a 20MB
hard disk sold for almost $6,000. Most im-
portant, the AT moved the industry to the
next processor level while maintaining
compatibility with almost all the original
PC applications.
Several important standards debuted
along with the AT, especially the 16-bit
expansion bus that endures as a standard
today, but also including EGA graphics,
which supported 640-by-350 resolution
with as many as 16 colors. At the same
time, IBM and Microsoft introduced
DOS 3.0, which would be the standard
for many years, and IBM launched
TopView, an early windowing system
that let users display multiple applica-
114 K' MAOAZINF. MAR<'H 25, 1*W7
tions concurrently.
Also that year,
Hewlett-Packard intro-
duced the first laser
printer, although dot
matrix and daisy wheel
printers continued to
dominate the market
for years. During this
time, the first bulletin-
board software pack-
ages were just starting
to appear. More busi-
ness-oriented online services, such as
CompuServe, were still years away from
market dominance.
In the early 1980s, there were still a
number of other kinds of machines on the
market. The Commodore 64 and the Atari
800 series were still popular home comput-
ers. But their day would soon pass, though
they would be resurrected a few years later
in the kind of dedicated game machines
that Nintendo and Sega would create.
In the business market, CP/M still
existed, but it was quickly fading from
mainstream use. Apple continued to
have a lot of success with the Apple II
family. It failed, however, with the intro-
duction of the Apple 111 and with the
technically impressive Lisa, based on
technology inspired by work at Xerox’s
famed Palo Alto Research Center. The
Lisa was the first major attempt to pop-
ularize the combination of mouse, win-
dows, icons, and graphical user inter-
face. But at nearly $10,000, it did not
gain market acceptance.
Instead, the business world was be-
ginning to adopt programs such as Lotus
1-2-3 and WordPerfect, which soon be-
came corporate fixtures. These programs
popularized both the PC standard and
the character-based DOS interface. Per-
haps that interface was not as exciting as
the graphics technology on the Lisa, but
it worked, it was affordable, and it soon
became dominant. These developments
set the pace for the next decade of per-
sonal computing.
OUR CONTRIBUTORS:
The articles and graphics of this three-part anniversary feature were researched, written,
edited, designed, and produced by the following staff members and contributors:
WRITING; Michael J. Miller, editor-in-chief:
Bill Machrone, contributing editor and former
editor-in-chief; David Bunnell, CEO and
publisher of Upside Publishing Co. and former
editor-in-chief; Bill Howard and Don Wlllmott,
executive editors; Frank J. Derfler, Jr., senior
networking editor; Larry Seltzer, technical
director; Carol Venezia, senior associate
editor; Todd Spangler, associate editor;
Andrew Boscardin, editorial researcher; John
C. Dvorak, Les Freed, Tony Pompill, Alfred
Poor, Jim Seymour and M. David Stone,
contributing editors; Cade Metz, staff writer;
Richard V. Oragan, programmer; Laura Peters,
consultant with Integrated Circuit Engineering.
TECHNICAL DIRECTION AND
PRODUCT TESTING: Nick Stam, technical
director; Jeffrey G. Witt, project leader;
Andrew Go and Amy Leung, technical analysts.
ART: Laura Baer, art director; Cynthia Rhett,
designer; Richard Dernier, senior associate art
director; Charles Conover and Michael
Scowden, associate art directors; Talor Min, art
production manager; David Foster, graphics
director; Mark Tyner, graphic artist; Jack
Harris, illustrator; Thom O'Connor, photog-
rapher.
EDITING: Jake Kirchner, editor; Gail Shaffer,
executive editor; John Clyman, senior
technical editor; Carol Venezia, senior
associate editor; Jamie M. Bsales, David
Lidsky, and Todd Spangler, associate editors;
Robert S. Anthony, senior staff writer; Mary E.
Behr, Toni Kistner, David R. Lambert, and
Anush Yegyazarian, staff editors.
RESEARCH: Jim Bartimo, research editor;
Nancy Sirapyan, librarian; Jennifer L.
Anderson, Andrew Boscardin, Chava Boylan,
Simon T. Eskow, Nancy E. Hirsch, Josh Levy,
and Michael N. Rusignuolo, editorial
researchers; Scott Hall, photo researcher.
COPY EDITING: Glen Boisseau Becker,
copy chief; Joseph N. Levine, senior copy
editor; Michael Feist, Jennifer Golub. C. J.
Hughes, Bill Kravitz, Jill Leger, Josh Miller, and
Ann Ovodow, copy editors.
PRODUCTION: Monica Sirignano.
production editor; Patricia Perkowski,
production manager, Pamela J. Berkowitz,
editorial production manager; Lillian Gaffney,
senior layout editor; Barbara McGeoch, layout
editor; Nancy Goodman-Siayback, production
system support analyst.
Lotus sets the pace for PC software
with the introduction of 1-2-J.
Copyrighted material
For the second year in a row, PC Mfer/rf readers recognized Micron
as the top maker of reliable PCs and provider of customer service.
And again Micmn was rated the best overall PC company in 1996.
PC Wor/iT Reliability & Service Survey-/^ World, December 1996
Copyrighted material
V ^
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CIRCLE 098 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW PCMAG.COM/PfOductLmk Copyrighted me
LOOKING BACK
As corporate users
around the world
were Hocking to
the DOS standard,
they found it a big
advancement over the micros of previous
years. The PC standard had led to the de-
velopment of the “clone” market for dif-
ferent kinds of machines that would run
software written to the standard. And
software developers everywhere were
taking advantage of the growing market
for new DOS applications software. It
may not have been a graphical era. but it
sure was productive.
And then a TV advertisement shown
only once — during the 1984 Super
Bowl — opened the door to the future of
personal computing. It depicted a young
runner dashing through a crowd of face-
IfM A onetime ad during the Super Bowl
launches the Apple Macintosh with a bang.
PtKNo eoMlMv of Appli Comouiar
less drones to throw a hammer that shat-
tered a screen image of Big Brother,
“Macintosh. So 1984 won’t be like
1984 ." And just like the screen
image destroyed by that ham-
mer. the image of the IBM-
compatible micro as the ul-
19M Michael Dell starts build-
ing a mail-order empire from his
college dorm room.
1984
Hewlett-
Packard ships
the first laser
printer.
timate computer was shattered as well.
Suddenly, a computer could offer
more than a DOS prompt and a charac-
ter-based interface; it could have multiple
windows, pull-down menus, and a mouse.
PC users, if they noticed, waited
It wasn't that the Macin-
tosh wasn’t appealing to PC
users. It was that the Mac,
unfortunately, wasn’t com-
patible with their existing
hardware and software. It
also initially didn’t have the
applications they wanted, it
wasn’t expandable, and it
looked a little like a toy.
Still, many software ven-
dors tried to deliver equiva-
lent functionality in pro-
grams. If Apple, inspired by Xerox’s work
at its Palo Alto Research Center, pointed
the way to graphical user interfaces, the
PC took a circuitous route to get there.
But it surely wasn’t for lack of trying.
One of the first PC graphical products
that shipped and failed was IBM’s
TopView. It was only character-based,
but it allowed multiple programs to run
on-screen at once. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t all that compatible either,
and developers often needed to
adapt their programs to work
on it. Having embraced
compatibility as the watch-
word for “standard” com-
puting, users stayed away.
Clearly Apple wasn’t the
only company committed to
1984 IBM revs up the PC AT
with an Intel 80286 processor.
graphical computing. By late 1983, Mi-
crosoft had already begun working on ap-
plications software for the Macintosh, and
it announced Windows 1.0 for the PC that
same year. This earliest version of Win-
dows was promised as an extension to DOS
and positioned against graphical competi-
tors of the day, notably Lisa (an earlier at-
tempt by Apple) and VisiOn (a graphical
environment promoted by VisiCorp. the
publishers of the VisiCalc spreadsheet).
The Windows that was announced was
very different from the Windows finally
shipped, after many delays,
almost two years later.
The early versions, also
called Interface Manager,
looked like early versions of
Microsoft Word for DOS,
with a single list of commands
on the bottom of the screen,
not the modem pull-down
menus. The windows could
not overlap; instead, they
would only tile (an option still
present in modern-day Win-
dows but rarely used). The basics were
there, including a mouse used for selecting
menu items, cut-and-paste capability, and
initially a list of 30 hardware vendors that
198S
Commodore
creates a cult
classic with its
Amiga computer.
PtiotoOPaul Avis.
CMnity ol0)7£.
would support it — which represented most
of the world that supported DOS, with the
notable exception of IBM.
By the time it shipped. Windows had
evolved to include puU-down menus as well
as the Windows Write and Windows Paint
122 PC' MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted materia!
LOOKING BACK
applications and memory
above 640K. But it failed to
gain market acceptance, in
part because there weren't
very many Windows applica-
tions available, although the
first PC version of PageMaker
did follow in late 1986.
Of the many competing windowing sys-
tems subsequently released, the most suc-
cessful attempt of the era may have been
the entry from Quarterdeck, a small start-
up in Santa Monica. California. Many
power users ended up running Quarter-
deck’s DESQview for years as their multi-
tasking window-
ing system.
On the hard-
ware front, al-
198< Compaq
beats IBM to the
punch with the first
80386 desktop.
though Intel introduced the 1 6-MHz 80.386
processor in 1985, it didn't immediately
find its way into IBM-compatible systems,
as they were then known. Maybe vendors
were waiting for IBM to take the 386 lead,
but IBM had other plans. Instead it was left
to Compaq and Advanced Logic Research
to introduce the first 386-based PCs in Sep-
tember 1986.
One bright spot was that net
working for personal computers
was beginning to come into its
own. Novell had introduced
NetWare in 1983, and it was
beginning to be established as a
corporate standard. So was Eth-
ernet, which had been invented in
198S Stevejobs makes a hasty
exit from Apple and immediately
establishes NeXT Computer.
the late seventies but was just
beginning to receive corporate
acceptance. Another early
networking force was IBM’s own standard,
Token-Ring, which came out in late 1985.
Compaq’s 386 entry pretty much de-
fined a new standard for the industry.
Suddenly, companies didn’t need to fol-
low IBM; with new technology they could
be leaders themselves. In place of a world
of IBM computing, it was now the era of
PC compatibles, spurred on by makers of
compatible BIOSes, such as Phoenix
Technologies and AMI.
Integrated software became a hot topic
in 1984, with the introduction of Lotus
Symphony and Ashton-Tate’s Framework,
programs that combined word processing,
spreadsheet, graphics, and database func-
tions into one integrated package. While
these were never as successful as their de-
velopers envisioned, they foreshadowed
the day when office suites would come to
dominate productivity applications.
Overall, it was an era of false starts in
many ways. The growth rate for sales of
PCs slowed a bit, perhaps reflecting the
lack of industry emphasis on home users.
And much of the PC industry was on
hold waiting for what was known
in the press as "the PC 11" from
IBM and “the New DOS.”
198S Intel creates the era of
32-bit PC processors with the
introduction of the 386 chip.
Photo Thom O'Connor.
The Perfect PC
PROCESSOR; Intel 10-MHz 80286
MEMORY: 640K
STORAGE: I.2M8S.25-inch floppy disk
drive. 20MB hard disk
DISPLAY: 14-inch CGA color
OS: MS-DOS 3.2
Price: $3,995
BILL MACHRONE
The IBM PC
introduced a
new concept to
the world of
personal com-
puters: choice.
With choice, however, came confu-
sion, so we at PC Magazine made it
our mission to create repeatable
benchmark tests and laboratory
conditions that would test the
products fairly and accurately.
Some sister Ziff-Davis publications
of the time provided inspiration:
Stereo Reviews Hirsch-Houck
Laboratories and Flyimfi tell-it-
like-it-is product reviews showed
that readers valued hard data and
reviews that went beyond cheer-
leading. But CarandOrivei'i
comparison reviews defined what
we wanted PC Magazine to be-the
reader's outspoken guide through
conflicting and
confusing manufac-
turers' claims.
PC Magazine's
first lab was a
converted
storage room.
There we tested the first local area
networks, using custom-designed
hardware to measure multitasking
performance. Three of Novell's top
four employees came to install
their hardware(l) and software.
Bob Metcalfe, founder of 3Com,
flew out to cover our whiteboard
with equations that proved that
CDMA collisions didn't impede
network performance. In
successive years, we invested
heavily in PC Magazine Labs. Then
as now, you readers were poised to
spend a lot of money on hardware
and software. We knew that the
success of the PC revolution
depended on your satisfaction, and
we continue to do everything
possible to help you make intelli-
gent. informed decisions.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 123
LOOKING BACK
1QQ7_QQ
^mPOHE COMPUTING
By 1987 the PC
world was ready
for something
new, which came
in April when
IBM unveiled its most ambitious offering
to date.
IBM's initial PS/2 machines ranged
from the Model 30 (with an 8-MHz 8086
Intel processor and two 3.5-inch floppy
disk drives) to the Models 50 and 60
(both with 10-MHz 286 CPUs) to the
Model 80 (IBM's first 386-based ma-
chine, featuring a 16-MHz or a 20-MHz
processor).
The PS/2 machines advanced the PC
standard in many ways. While other
companies, notably HP and Apple, had
shipped 3.5-inch floppy disk drives first,
the PS/2 made this a standard, in part be-
cause you couldn't get an internal 5.25-
inch drive on several of these models.
While other companies had previously
announced graphics boards that provid-
ed 640-by-480 display resolution, the
PS/2 brought with it the new Video
Graphics Array (VGA) standard, which
remains a standard to this day. VGA was
a big improvement over the earlier EGA
standard, which offered 640-by-350 reso-
lution. Now each pixel became more
"square," and the images had less distor-
tion. VGA also allowed more colors to
be displayed simultaneously on-screen.
The most controversial aspect of
the PS/2, however, was its introduction
of a new bus for
add-on cards — the
Micro Channel ar- | ||||||||||
chitecture. Micro
IMT The PS/2
becomes IBM’s big
push for a second-
generation line of PCs.
124 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. IW7
1 n-»i»
trotrii Selecttr
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T« teirci preu Fit Tb««, {test tMtr
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■ I*ir«4oclH OS/2 1
• OS/2 CoMd rrsapt
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Channel offered huge advantages over
the older bus used in the AT: It was faster,
it simplified the process of configuring
cards, and it improved the ability of two
add-in boards to work simultaneously.
But Micro Channel wasn't compatible
with the preceding IBM-compatible ma-
chines and the hundreds of expansion
cards already on the market. Moreover.
IBM initially charged vendors signifi-
cantly more money for a license to
use the Micro Channel archi-
tecture than it had for the
older AT design. This was
IBM's attempt to regain its
technical lead — and mar-
ket share — from the clone
vendors, and IBM was will-
ing to go so far as to abandon
hardware compatibility.
By November, IBM was crow-
ing that it had sold I million PS/2
devices in seven months, four
times as fast as it had sold a mil-
lion units of its original PC.
The vendors of compatible
machines looked at the new specifications
and gradually adapted the new 3.5-inch
drive (although most software vendors
had to provide their programs on both
3.5- and 5.25-inch disks for years to come)
and VGA graphics standards.
But Compaq, AST. and others that
had followed IBM's lead in 8088- and
1»S7 IBM fights
to take back
market control
with Micro
Channel.
If S7 The continuing IBM/Microsoft partner-
ship produces OS/2, Version 1.0.
Photo O Piul Av», Coudoty ol BYTE
later 286-based (AT-compatible) com-
puters balked at the licensing fees and the
lack of backward compatibility of the
Micro Channel architecture. Instead, they
came out the following year with an alter-
native, called the Enhanced Industry
Standard Architecture (EISA), which of-
fered several advantages, such as a 32-bit-
wide data path, while retaining compati-
bility with existing 16-bit expansion cards.
For years, the industry debated the
merits of Micro Channel and EISA. Even-
tually. Micro Channel won support among
IBM's customers, and EISA gathered
some adherents for use in PC servers. But
most end users continued buying add-on
boards that were still AT-compatible,
which came to be known as Indus-
try Standard Architecture (ISA)
boards. The era in which IBM
by itself could dictate a
change to the PC industry's
hardware standards had
come to an end.
But if the hardware world
was to become fragmented fol-
lowing the PS/2 announcement,
the effect of that development
was nothing compared with the
reaction to the announcement at
the same time of a new operating
system developed jointly by IBM
and Microsoft: OS/2.
At that initial announcement, execu-
tives of both companies stood up and pro-
claimed their intention to make OS/2 the
replacement for DOS. After all, they said.
DOS was not graphical, didn't offer a stan-
dard user interface, could run only a single
program at a time, and was still burdened
by the 640K memory-address limit. While
Copyrighted material
LOOKING BACK
JIM SEYMOUR
Tliey were well
beyond Querrilla
computing tools
by then, of
course. We
didn't have to > Ab arf
sneak them into our offices any-
more, and we didn't have to hide
them on our expense accounts.
But as 1987 dawned, PCs were
still far from the dominant force
in business computing. Then
came the explosion of PCs on
corporate desktops, combined
with serious networking for the
first time. Yes, we were still
turning those amazingly fast 386
desktop machines on end and
calling them servers. Yes, setting
up networks and connecting PCs to
them was still far from easy. Yes,
the configurations
of the machines we
thought desktop
rockets back then
are laughable a
decade later.
But things had
changed. PCs were part of the
environment, unremarkable,
ubiguitous. The war was over.
When corporate America wasn't
looking, we had taken over.
By then I had been writing my
PC Afagaz/ne column for several
years, having added it to my duties
as columnist for our sister publica-
tion, PC Wee*. I jumped at the
chance to write for PC Magazine
because of its audience: literate
people-not just computer-literate
people-who really do push the
gears and levers of change In
computing. They know what I'm
talking about, and they do some-
thing about it. And that's why
I've stayed: the appeal of my new
colleagues, and the bully pulpit
before a smart audience of people
who in their dav-to-dav decisions
The Perfect PC
PROCESSOR: Intel 20-MHz 803860X
MEMORY: 2MB
STORAGE: 1.44MB J.S-inch and
1.2MB S.2S-inch floppy disk drives:
40MB hard disk
DISPLAY: 14-inch EGA color
OS: MS-OOS 3.3
i9sa
After three
years of devel-
opment, NeXT
Computer
introduces
the radically
different
Nexteube.
Photo Thotii O'Connor
Microsoft had been talking about a "multi-
tasking DOS" for some time and IBM had
long been rumored to be developing its
own alternative, the two companies had
signed a joint development agreement,
through which OS/2 was to be the
marriage of the two.
Almost from the begin-
ning, however, that agree-
ment was troubled. OS/2
was to ship initially in two
versions. The first — which
shipped in late 1987 — would
be OS/2 1.0, offering preemp
five multitasking and support for
large applications, up to 16MB, the
limit of the 286 processor. But the real
graphical version — the one that caught
the attention of
most users and de-
velopers — would be
OS/2 1.1 with Pre-
sentation Manager,
and that didn't ship
IfM The Intel
486 processor includes
a Level 1 cache on
the chip.
until October 1988.
More problematic would be compati-
bility concerns. OS/2 was originally writ-
ten for the 286, but the processor itself
had some limitations. The 286 had intro-
duced what Intel called "protected" mem-
ory and the ability to write programs be-
yond the 640K barrier, but it did so in a
way that sometimes made it incompatible
with existing 8088/8086-based software. A
“compatibility box" let users run some ex-
isting DOS programs, but early versions
of the compatibility box weren't all that
compatible: users often called it the
"penalty box."
Intel's 386 would address many of those
issues by introducing what was
known as Virtual 86 mode, which
19M An industry coalition
counters IBM's Micro Channel
architecture with EISA.
nMXO ThomO'Conoor
let a machine run multiple 8086
scs,sions. OS/2, however, would not
support virtual mode for several years. In
addition, there was confusion about a sepa-
rate IBM-only version of OS/2, called the
Extended Edition, which would add a data-
base manager and communications. And
some users mistakenly assumed the OS/2
name meant the operating system would
work only on PS/2s.
Meanwhile, Microsoft continued work
on Windows, which it positioned as a
product that worked on top of DOS and
was a “transition” to OS/2.
In 1987. Microsoft Windows 2.0 en-
hanced the Windows user interface to in-
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SEE, HEAR AND FEEL THE DiFFERENCE."
CIRCLE T54 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Copyrighted malerial
LOOKING BACK
dude such features as overlapping win-
dows. the ability to resize windows, and
keyboard accelerators (shortcut keys).
Thus, it moved much closer to today’s
Windows and OS/2. And it supported
IBM's Systems Application Architecture
(SAA) user interface standards more
than a year before OS/2 would. But this
version worked in 8088/8086-compatible
real mode, not the 286’s more sophisticat-
ed protected mode, meaning applications
still couldn’t multitask well and still were
limited in size.
Later that year, Windows was split into
Windows/286 and Windows/386, the latter
of which added multitasking capabilities,
the ability to run applications in virtual ma-
chines. and support for up to 16MB of
memor>'. Windows/386 doesn't sound like
much now. but at the time it was a lot. And
it marked the beginnings of competition
between OS/2 and Windows, though at the
time both IBM and Microsoft denied this.
More important, it became clear that
Windows and OS/2 weren’t as compatible
as they were initially promised to be, be-
cause the two supported very different
models for writing graphics to the screen.
As a result, there was confusion among
software developers, who were told by
Microsoft to write for Windows with the
promise that the programs could easily
move to OS/2 later, and who were being
The Personal Computing Industry by the Numbers
Since the introduction of the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, the PC industry has been
in a steady march forward— and upward. And there is no end in sight.
PCs SOLD IN THE U.S. (THOUSANDS)
19S4: Compaq Computer Corp.
takes on the mantle of industry
leadership by producing the first
386 desktop PC. In short order,
the doners start to overtake the
industry leader. IBM.
128 K MACiA/.INE MARC H 25. 1997
Copyrighted i...
LOOKING BACK
told by IBM to write directly for OS/2.
Neither platform received a lot of
support in those days. Initial application
support for the Windows platform was
somewhat limited, with the exception of
Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Excel,
which came out in 1987. Notably, a full-
featured Windows word processor would
not appear until late 1989. when Samna's
Ami Pro (which later was acquired by
Lotus, and which survives under the
name Word Pro) and the first version of
Microsoft Word appeared. Just about
every major developer promised support
for the graphical version of OS/2, but ap-
plications were very slow in appearing.
Instead, the PC world was settling down
into a world of DOS applications and basic
networking. Slowly but surely, computers
were becoming a part of business life
for just about all white-collar workers. It
wasn't exciting, but it sure worked.
Despite all the promises, the comput-
ing world at the end of the decade was left
with standards that had existed for many
years, such as DOS and the ISA bus. and
with a lot of proposals for the future — but
no clear direction. IBM had failed to set a
new direction for itself and for the indus-
try. and no other vendors had really taken
over as standards-setters. Of course we
didn't know it at the time, but this situa-
tion was to change very soon.
1994 : Microsoft battles back
against Netscape with Internet
Explorer 3.0 and moves to
incorporate its browser
technology into Windows.
\mid\m
PC Magazine Provides
The Benchmark
Pacing the rapid rise of the PC industry.
PC Mogazine'i circulation grows
quickly, until it is the most successful
business publication in the U.S.
’83 ’84 '85 '86 '87 '88 '89 '90 '91 '92 '93 '94
YEAR
1994 : Netscape Communications
releases the first version of its
Navigator browser and spurs the
industry-wide race for supremacy
in the Internet market.
1990 : Microsoft ships Windows
3.0 to give the PC world a real if
long-delayed entry Into graphical
computing. Software developers
quickly fall into line.
1992 : Windows 3.1 confirms
Microsoft's leadership position in
the PC software industry and sets
every software developer
scrambling to ship compliant
software.
IBM Is Quickly Overtaken by the Vendors of Compatibles
Even as its sales grow. IBM's market share dwindles. (Sources: Computer Intelligence and IDC.)
Macintosh I Other
IBM-compatible
U.S. PC MARKET SHARE
Compatibles
81%
Compatibles
7A%
Compatibles
6 %
Compatibles
28%
19.322
1994
i
a
i
i
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MACiAZINn 129
Copyrighied rr
LOOKING BACK
Whether the com-
puting world was
looking for a new
standard or not, it
got one in May
1990, when Microsoft finally shipped
Windows 3.0,
Windows 3.0 ran on top of DOS, so it
offered compatibility with the DOS pro-
grams. It took advantage of the 386
processor, so it could multitask both those
DOS programs and Windows programs.
The user interface was designed to look a
lot like the Presentation Manager, with
both an icon-based Program Manager
and a tree-based File Manager, and it in-
cluded enhancements such as shaded
icons. Although Windows 3.0 required
minor rewrites of just about every Win-
dows program to date, there weren’t
many of them to be rewritten. Most im-
portant, almost as soon as Windows 3.0
was introduced, applications appeared,
led by Microsoft’s own applications divi-
sion and followed by just about every
other major developer. Even after the
Windows 3.0 announcement, Microsoft
and IBM continued
Microsoft puts
some real life into Win-
dows with the intro-
duction of Version 3.0.
Photo ceuRMy oi MicnNOft (rchMi
to talk about OS/2
and in particular
about OS/2 2.0, the first real 32-bit ver-
sion, which would finally appear in 1992.
Even more confusing, while IBM was
positioning OS/2 as the future operating
system for all users, Microsoft was posi-
tioning OS/2 as high-end, for mission-criti-
cal and server-based applications only. In-
stead, Microsoft started talking about OS/2
130 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
1991 Apple's John
Sculley (left) and
IBM's Jack Kuehier
hail the formation
ofTaligentand
Kaleida.
PtKKP COUtMV of Appit
Computtr.
3.0 (not to be confused with the later IBM
OS/2 Warp 3.0), which would add im-
proved security and multiprocessor sup-
port and would be able to execute Win-
dows and Posix applications
directly. In that scenario,
Windows NT was the ker-
nel on which DOS, Win-
dows. OS/2, and Posix
compatibility would sit.
The two companies fi-
nally split their strategies
in early 1991, with IBM’s Jim
Cannavino and Microsoft’s Bill
Gates and Steve Ballmer sounding
like angry spouses during a bitter divorce.
OS/2 developed a strong niche in some
large corporate applications, helped by its
stabihty and robustness as compared with
Windows 3 jc. Later, IBM would make one
last attempt to make OS/2 mainstream with
its more consumer-oriented OS/2 Warp 3.0,
which shipped in late 1994. It would sell
miUions of copies but not slow down the in-
dustry’s broad move to Windows.
Microsoft eventually turned its one-time
“OS/2 3.0’’ into Windows NT 3.1, which
shipped in 1993 without graphical OS/2 sup-
port and found support initially as an oper-
ating system for applications servers, com-
peting primarily against IBM’s OS/2.
For most PC users, Microsoft offered
the enhanced Windows 3.1 in late 1991,
which added better applications integra-
tion, drag-and-drop, and simply more
OWSERA
stability. Through the early nineties this
became the dominant standard for PC
applications, and Microsoft took a lead-
ership role in defining multimedia spec-
ifications.
Microsoft came to dominate many
more areas of computing in this time
frame. Its Visual Basic and Visual C-H-i-
overcame big competition from Borland
to dominate programming languages.
And Microsoft’s applications — led by its
Office suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
and later Access — took the lion’s share of
the market for applications software (in
part helped by delays in the Windows
versions of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPer-
fect, and dBASE, the last of
1992 Microsoft cements its desk-
top hegemony with Windows 3.1.
^ which had by then been ac-
quired by Borland).
In this period, Apple’s Macintosh
line continued to grow and eiqyand, and it
found niches in graphics arts, multimedia,
and education. But in most corporate and
government offices the primary business
system was one that followed the standards
of the original PC. By then the term IBM-
compatible had fallen out of favor, to be re-
placed by the processor as the primary de-
scriptor of hardware.
The era of the 286 had already hastened
to a close in late 1988
following Intel’s in-
troduction of the
386SX, a processor
that had the 32-bit in-
199 } PowerPC 601
systems signal the first
new computing platform
in years.
PtMtt: Them O'Conner.
Copyrighted malsria!
LOOKING BACK
1991 Intel tops 3 million transistors
per chip with the Pentium.
temals of the 386 but a 16-bit
data bus like the 286, which
made it inexpensive. It and
the original 386 — rechris-
tened the 386DX — dominated
computer sales for years. In April
1989, Intel followed up the 386 with its
486 processors. With 1.2 million transistors,
the 486 was effectively a faster, more re-
fined version of the 386 plus a math co-
processor, so it ran all of the applications
written for the 386 without a hitch.
This time around, no one waited for
IBM or Compaq to go first. Dozens of ven-
dors raced to have 486 machines available
as soon as possible after the Intel introduc-
tion, and these machines could run as much
as SO times as fast as the original IBM PC.
Intel introduced its 60-MHz Pentium
processor in March 1993, but it wasn’t
just processors that continued to ad-
vance. Hard disks continued to get big-
ger and faster. And graphics display
technology progressed beyond “frame
buffer” graphics cards to graphics accel-
erators, which worked directly with Win-
dows to increase screen response times
and to enhance all graphics.
In this period, corporate local area net-
working really began
I take off. At the
time, IBM was
promoting Of-
ficeVision,
1994 Netscape
posts the first beta
version of Navigator.
Photo' Jtffriy Krtw.
which was supposed to run on all
the SAA platforms including
OS/2. And just about every
other giant systems vendor
had its own multiplatform
office-automation strategy,
such as DEC’S All-in-One.
Almost all of these would fail
relatively quickly.
What did succeed was PC servers,
which hold their own data and can link to
big corporate databases. On the hardware
front, the Compaq Systempro, introduced
in 1989, led the charge for big applications
that previously had lived on minicomputers
and other large systems. On the software
side, SQL was coming into the market, and
companies like Oracle and Sybase were be-
1994 Laptops
start sporting
serious desktop-
like features
such as CD-ROM
drives.
Photo; Jotfrev KtMt
ginning to target PC developers. Rapid ap-
plications development or RAD tools soon
helped make it easier to create good user
interfaces for accessing corporate data.
E-mail had begun to become a way of
corporate life, with early products such as
cc:Mail, later acquired by Lotus, and a host
of smaller competitors. In December 1989,
Lotus had changed the equation with Lotus
Notes, the first “groupware” application.
By 1994, Microsoft and Intel had
picked up the mantle of leadership in the
PC industry, Windows was established as
the standard for applications, and net-
working had become mainstream.
The Perfect PC
PROCESSOR: Intel 33-MHz 80486DX
MEMORY: 16MB
STORAGE: 1.44MB 3.S-inch floppy disk
drive. 4X CD-ROM drive
DISPLAY: 15-inch VGA color
choice in 1989
when the first, ^
funky version of
Windows was in competition with
OS/2 and DOS and the Mac. DOS
was winning the popularity con-
test, but on Tuesday, May 22,
1990, that changed for good.
Microsoft introduced Windows
3.0. This new version was
an immediate hit. Reviewers all
raved about the product. It
seemed that the time had come
for a Mac-like interface for every-
one. People gobbled up 3.0, and
the mass movement away from
DOS and OS/2 and everything else
had begun. As reviewers
and pundits first raved about the
product, they would soon begin to
complain about its deficiencies,
which served only to promote the
next version, 3.1, which debuted
on April 6, 1992. This rave-then-
complain cycle would continue
right through to the later releases
of Windows NT and
Windows 95. I've
often pondered the
basic attractive-
ness of the GUI
over the com-
"'4nd line, and
I've come to a conclusion: The
appeal of using a mouse to move
a cursor around the screen
actually brings the user into a
symbiosis with the computer that
can never be achieved with
simple command line computing.
It's this symbiosis that makes
computing easy and enjoyable.
Although in many ways command
line computing is actually easier
and more efficient, it's also too
emotionally cold and detached
for the majority of today's
"sensitive" users.
MARCH 25. IW7 PC MAGAZINE 131
It Retrieves E-mail, Accesses The Internet,
And Connects You With Your PC.
Because Sometimes You’ve Just Got To Contact The Mothership.
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Copyrighted material
LOOKING BACK
lQQt:_Q7
THEONLINE^GE
In early 1995, one
might have ex-
pected new oper-
ating systems
from Microsoft
and new chips from Intel to remain the
driving forces in computing for many
years to come, given the history of previ-
ous years. These are stilt important, but
perhaps the most important change in
the last few years came from a group of
graduate students at the University of
Illinois. There, in early 1993, Marc An-
dreessen, Eric Bina, and others working
for the National Center for Supercom-
puting Applications (NCSA) came up
with Mosaic, a tool they would use to
browse the Internet.
The Internet, of course, had been
around for many years, dating back to the
early 1960s when the Pentagon’s Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) funded the connections for
many university computers. As the Inter-
net continued to grow, the government
passed control of it to the individual sites
and technical committees. And in 1990,
Tim Berners-Lee, then at the CERN
physics lab in Geneva, Switzerland, cre-
ated HyperText Markup Language
(HTML), an easy way to link information
together among Internet sites. This in
turn created the World Wide Web, which
waited only for a graphical browser to
begin growing like Topsy.
Once Mosaic was released to the public
in late 1993, sud-
denly the Inter-
net — and the
ms Windows 95
debuts after
overwhelming
anticipation.
Photo: Jsftrvy Krain.
Web in particular — became accessible to
just about anyone with a personal comput-
er, helped in part by the fact that you could
freely download the latest version of sever-
al different browsers. And soon it seemed
that just about everyone — and every com-
pany — was putting up a Web site.
New versions of Web browsers arrived
very quickly as well. Soon
Netscape Corp. — a new com-
pany formed by Andreessen
and Jim Clark, who had been a
founder of Silicon Graphics —
began to dominate Web
browsers. Netscape Navigator
added lots of features, includ-
ing plug-in support (which in
turn led to many multimedia
extensions) and the Java virtu-
al machine (which let develop-
ers write Java applets that ran
within the browser).
The tremendous excitement
caused by the explosion of the World
Wide Web came close to overshadowing
Microsoft’s major announcement of the
period: Windows 95. Introduced in Au-
gust 1995, the software’s debut was ac-
companied by more hype than any other
computing announcement of the era.
Windows 95 was the version of Win-
dows that many users had been waiting for.
19M Toshiba breaks into the desktop PC market
with the stylish and feature-rich infinia.
Photo: Thom O'Connor.
It allowed for full 32-bit applications, had
preemptive multitasking, was Plug and
Play-compatible, supported new e-mail
and communications standards, and of
course featured a new user interface. In
fact, many users thought the new interface,
which included a Start menu and a program
desktop with folders and icons, moved
Windows much closer to the original Lisa
or Macintosh design of ten years earlier.
Microsoft had promised a 32-bit Win-
dows for years, at one point saying that
one would be ready in 1992, and develop-
ers had spent a long time waiting for
“Chicago,” as Windows 95 was known
during development. Once shipped. Win-
dows 95 quickly became a standard for
end-user computing, with many
vendors having 32-bit versions
of their applications ready
when the new OS shipped or
shortly thereafter. Microsoft
followed Windows 95 less than
a year later with Windows NT
4.0, which incorporated the
same user interface and ran
most of the same applications
using the Win32 programming
interfaces. Windows NT rapid-
ly found favor among corpo-
rate IT managers because of its
more stable design.
Still, there is lots of room left for ad-
vances in operating systems. For years,
software vendors have been talking about
object-oriented languages (such as C++)
and a more object-oriented operating sys-
tem. In such a design, data and applica-
tions should be split up, so that users
might work with data independent of in-
dividual applications. Ideally, objects
ms Microsoft
rushes to join the
browser wars with
Internet Explorer.
Photo: Thom O'Connoi.
134 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrights maioriat
LOOKING BACK
could be spread out or distributed among
multiple computers.
Microsoft has been talking about this
concept for years, notably in Bill Gates’s
November 1990 “Information at Your Fin-
gertips" speech, which emphasized the con-
cept that all the data a user may need could
someday be accessed from a personal com-
puter regardless of where the data actually
resides. The idea, he said, was to move be-
yond applications and think about data.
This direction led to Microsoft's emphasis
on compound documents, macros that work
across applications, and a new file system.
Some parts of that vision — called Cairo —
are part of the Windows 95 interface and
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).
Other parts are still on the drawing board.
Of course, Microsoft’s com-
petitors have continued down
their own paths. In 1989.
Steve Jobs’s NeXT Com-
puter came up with an
object-oriented OS. which
was targeted toward cor-
porate customers and re-
cently was acquired by
Apple Computer. In the
early nineties IBM and
Apple merged two of their projects —
Apple’s “Pink” OS and an IBM/Metaphor
experiment called the Patriot Partners — to
create Taligent. This project re-
sulted in a fairly extensive series of
frameworks for developers to use
in creating object-based applica-
tions. But though the frameworks
were recently added to OS/2, plans
for Taligent as a separate OS have
been shelved.
Other object-based technology
is in various stages of development
199S Java be-
comes an instant
addiction.
199( Windows CE devices give the slumbering
hand-held market a needed boost.
Photo; Gaolhov Nation
Microsoft’s OLE, which allows for com-
pound documents, has been improving
and is now a part of the firm’s ActiveX
specification. Apple, IBM, and others
came up with an alternative specification
called OpenDoc, and such components
are now called LiveObjects. IBM de-
fined a standard for objects to work to-
gether across a network called the Sys-
tems Object Model (SOM), which
competes with Microsoft’s Component
Object Model (COM).
But all of this has been overshadowed
in recent months by Sun Microsystems’
Java, which started life as a variant of
C-f-r designed for use on the Internet. In
the last year, it has grown to include a vir-
tual-machine implementation that
has been incorporated in Netscape
and Microsoft browsers, as well as
the latest version of IBM’s oper-
ating system OS/2 Warp. Many
1W* The U.S. Robotics Pilot:
Finally, a PDA that's chic (not embar-
rassing) to carry.
PlHKo. Thom O'Connor
The Perfect PC
PROCESSOR; Intel 200-MHz MMX Pentium
MEMORY: 32M6
STORAGE: 1.44MB 3.5-inch floppy disk
drive. 2GB hard disk. 8X CD-ROM drive
DISPLAY: 17-inch SVGA color
OS: Microsoft Windows 95
Price: S3,500
DON WILLMOTT
The Internet
made the cover
Of PC Magazine
long before it
was on the cover
of Newsweek.
But then again, cyberspace has
never been terra incognita for PC
Magazine. After ten years of online
publishing experience, we were
ready (almost) for the explosion of
Interest in the World Wide Web in
1995. By the beginning of 1996,
our Web site, PC Magazine Online,
was getting 150,000 page reguests
a week. By the end of the year, it
was getting 225,000 requests a
day. How do we keep that number
rising? Like everyone who publish-
es on the Web, we spend enormous
amounts of time thinking about,
discussing, and even fighting about
how to deliver meaningful informa-
tion online in an
interactive way. One
thing's for sure:
Just because you
know how to do It
weil on paper
doesn't mean you
automatically know how to do it
well online. One big advantage
the Web has over print Is its limit-
lessness. That means we are able
to expand on the magazine-based
stories we create and use the PC
Magazine site to present stories
and special features that might
otherwise fall by the wayside, all
with a turnaround time of hours
rather than weeks. Our ''Internet-
User'' section, where we've posted
more than 500 constantly updated
Web-related product reviews, is
just one example of the kind of
industry and technology coverage
we can provide online that we can
never replicate in print. Even
now. more than two years into our
Web adventure, we are still leam-
ing-just like you.
M
MARCH 25.1997 K MAGAZINE 135
LOOKING BACK
developers are currently developing ap-
plets and even full applications within
Java, with the hope that this will free
them from having to rely on Microsoft
standards. More recently. Sun, Netscape
and others have been promoting the
JavaBeans specification as a great way of
linking objects.
On the Web itself, a current push is
for technologies and products that
allow content to be delivered
automatically over the Inter-
net, so that users don't have
to search out specific infor-
mation. Pioneered by
PointCast, which imple-
mented a screen saver that
collects information from
many sources, this approach is
being pursued by several new com-
petitors, including Castanet and Back-
Web. And both Netscape and Microsoft
are now promising background delivery
of Internet content, with Microsoft even
talking about making it a part of the
Windows desktop.
Keeping pace with these software de-
velopments, computer hardware contin-
ues to evolve.
Faster and faster machines remain the
watchword. Intel’s Pentium processor
with 3.2 million transistors was introduced
in 1993 and by 1995 had become the stan-
dard processor in mainstream computing.
Intel has since followed this up with the
Pentium Pro processor, offering even bet-
ter 32-bit performance.
In early 1997, Intel introduced the
MMX instructions, the first major en-
hancement to the Intel instruction set
since the 386. These instructions, which
are designed to improve game and multi-
media performance, will be added to both
Pentium and Pentium Pro designs. Intel's
competitors — notably AMD and Cyrix —
plan chips that will be competitive with
the Pentium Pro and include MMX in-
structions as well.
At the same time, other hardware
continues to evolve. Graphics adapters
have become faster and more powerful
and are now adding new 3-D capabilities,
particularly exploiting the Direct3D
features in Windows, Hard disks con-
tinue to get faster and larger; in early
1997, hard disks larger than 2 gigabytes
are beginning to become standard fea-
136 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. IW
tures of high-end PCs.
CD-ROM drives came into the mar-
ket in 1985 but didn’t begin to take off
until the early nineties. Now they are a
standard part of virtually all desktop ma-
chines sold into the home and small-busi-
ness markets, and the preferred way of
loading applications. CD-ROM speed
has improved markedly; today 12X CD-
ROM drives (those that spin at 12
times the speed of the first dri-
ves) are becoming standard.
1W7 Intel adds multimedia
extensions to the Pentium
processor with MMX.
Photo JohnWdkt*
But where the 660MB capaci-
^ ty of a CD-ROM once seemed
enormous, the coming DVD stan-
dard — which allows at least 4.7GB of
storage on a single disk of the same size —
dwarfs it. That’s enough for a full-length
movie, perhaps with multiple languages
or multiple endings.
Even printers have advanced at an
amazing pace. Laser printers have be-
come the standard corporate printers,
offering excellent black-and-white print-
ing, often at high speed, in printers
shared over a network. In the home
market, color ink jet printers have
become the standard, offering great
black-and-white and good color printing
for well under $400.
Meanwhile, some companies — no-
tably Sun and Oracle — are arguing that
the speed of machines is no longer as im-
portant as it used to be, because of the
prevalence of the Internet. Instead, they
are promoting a new Network Computer
(or NC) specification, which argues for
“thin clients” with most processing tak-
ing place on servers, where the operating
system and all applications reside. Such
systems, they argue, would be easier to
administer and thus would offer a lower
total cost of ownership. Microsoft and
Intel are fighting back with a NetPC
specification, which they maintain would
have the same advantages plus the addi-
tional power and flexibility of PCs be-
cause NetPCs would run Windows and
existing applications and would allow for
standalone computing.
How many and which of these hard-
ware. software, and networking initia-
tives will succeed? As always, it’s hard to
tell. But it is clear that the Internet and
the Web will be major factors in the years
to come, as will the inevitable increases in
hardware and software capabilities.
What also is clear is that even though
the last 15 years in the PC industry have
been a wild ride, the next 15 promise to
be even more interesting as the pace of
technological development continues to
aecelerate.
For Further Reading
HRE IN THE VALLEY:
The Making of the Personal Computer
by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swa 'me
(Osbome/McGraw-HUl, 1984).
BLUE MAGIC
The People. Power & Politics Behind the IBM
Personal Computer by James Chposky and
Ted Leonsis (Facts on File, 1988).
BIG BLUES:
The Unmaking of IBM by Paul Carroll
(Crown Publishing, 1994).
ACCIDENTAL EMPIRES:
How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their
Millions, Battle Foreign Competition & Still
Can’t Get a Date by Robert X. Cringely
(Harper Business, 1993). Video version:
"Triumph of the Nerds" (PBS. 1996).
GATES:
How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an
Industry & Made Himself the Richest Man in
America by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews
(Simon & Schuster, 1994).
THE ROAD AHEAD
by Bill Cates, with Nathan Myhrvold and Peter
Rinearson (Viking Penguin. 1996).
MICROCOSM:
The Quantum Revolution in Economics &
Technology by George Gilder (Simon A
Schuster, 1989).
THE CHIP:
How Two Americans Invented the Microchip
and Launched a Revolution by T.R. Reid
(Simon A Schuster, 1985).
COMPUTER PIONEERS
byJ.A.N. Lee (IEEE Computer Society Press,
1995).
THE 8TH ANNUAL COMPUTER INDUSTRY
ALMANAC
by Karen Peiska-Juliussen and Dr. Egil
Juliussen (The Reference Press, 1996).
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMPUTER SCIENCE,
THIRD EDITION.
by Anthony Ralston and Edwin D. Reilly (Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1993).
Copyrighted material
■n' . ♦
i, ■
It’s Windows* in the palm of your
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mobility the new Velo gives you.
Whether you’re writing a brief on a
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The Velo has a built-in modem as
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Explorer. And check this out: it even lets you record voice
memos. It weighs less than a pound, but does a ton of work.
Call 1-888-FOR-VELO or visit our Web site at www.velol.com. ssS
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Velo is a reg«tered trademark ot Philips Electronics. All other names are
either registered trademarks or trademarks ol their respective owners.
Robert Noyce
Dennis Hayes
THE MEN WHO CHANGED OUR WORLD
Dm tiiciilM and Mb
FfMlutoN launched VisiCalc in
1979, prompting thousands to
recognize that micros were not
just for hobbyists anymore.
Dmum shipped the first
PC modem in 1979 and made
it clear that any computer is
effective only when connected
to the rest of the world.
HMtif D. latrMf*
led the team that flouted IBM's
corporate mores to produce the
IBM PC within one very busy year.
Rod CMiow in 1982 joined
with Jim Hferm and Rill
to establish Compaq Computer
Corp. and showed the computing
world that there's more than one
way to be IBM-compatible.
Mitch founded Lotus
in 1982 and began marketing
1-2-3, coauthored by j«Mthwi
Sachs. The integrated program
set the direction for the micro
software industry.
M hc F t Ncycc, coinventor
of the integrated circuit, was
also cofounder of Fairchild
Semiconductor and in 1968
joined with Cardsw Moore
to start Intel.
Poyfloi inglebort
is credited with inventing
the computer mouse in the
mid-sixties while working
at the Stanford Research
Institute. He went on to
develop the first windows
system, hypertext, and many
other personal computing
technologies.
Tod Hoff led an Intel team,
including StM Motor.
PodorHo f Off m, and
Mosotoshi Shimo, that in
1971 developed the first
microprocessor, the 4004.
Id Roh o rts founded HITS,
which in 197S began selling the
$397 Altair kit computer-the
first true personal computer,
which Roberts codesigned with
RH( Yotot.
Pool AlUn and Rill Oatoa
were high-school chums whose
extracurricular interest in
computing led to the 1975
formation of Microsoft.
Stovo Jobs and Stovt
Woxniok in 1976 soldered and
hammered together the first
Apple computer in the Jobs
family garage. In short order,
their company gave personal
computing the direction it still
follows today.
Dory Nildoll in 1972 wrote
the first programming language
for the Intel 4004. He later
founded Digital Research to sell
his operating system, CP/M,
which paced the early micro
industry.
Artfcor Roch had the money
and the vision to invest in
several of the seminal personal
computing ventures, notably
Apple Computer and Intel,
helping give birth to an
industry.
Ted Hoff
Ed Roberta
istndge
PhMM Rotxn Noycecouitstvof InttI; GtrvXMtIiRTomO. O'Ntal.SKv* Jobs ThtBMBninnA/ctMvt.Sitv* Woimakcounaiyol&Kil*
Computtr. Paul AUofl courtny ol Microaolt ofcluvaa. Bin Galas courtasy ol Miooiofi aiclxvas.Ed nobaits eounaty ol Slava Shapatfl
138 PC MAGAZINE MARCH IS. I997
Today the personal computir>g industry Is worldwide and enjoys an unprecedented diversity amorrg
its millions of users, sellers, builders, and planners. But a look at the faces of the men who built this
world reminds us that in the early years, personal computing was almost exclusively an American
phenomenon and overwhelmingly male. Of the hundreds of people who pioneered personal comput-
ing. here are a handful of those whose names spring to mind when we remember the early years.
peffbrcoari^
Feb 4, 1997
PCMagazuie- •
T he J3.W Ouamex QP5/200
SM>3. which earned thU
ruundup's highest performance/^
IcaturcK score, is un attractive choici
tor businesses. It utters much uf ihT
same hardware as Dell’s Dimensirf
andaddsa4.1CiB Ultra SCSlh^^
disk, a subwoofer for its Altec/
Speakers, and a telephony^/
Among home PC*,
way
Quantex is proud to be one of the first to offer systems with MMX ”■ technology. Thanks to this latest victory, the
latest and greatest Intel processor can be yours today.
Boost Your Multimedia Performance to New Heights
Whether you’re an Internet user, gaming addict or someone who requires the highest quality graphics and
sound, MMX” technology will give you the outstanding multimedia performance you need. MMX ' technology
accelerates all these applications, giving you blazing speed in communications, high-quality stereo sound, 3-D
realism and multimedia presentations. Data required for all multimedia applications can be processed faster,
boosting speeds up to 60% on Intels Media Benchmark.
At under $ 2,500, We’ve Broken The Price Barrier
These new Quantex systems with MMX' technology are packages of speed, power and performance. With qual-
ity components from some of the biggest names in the business, Quantex offers a
value that can’t be outdone. Buy a Quantex today and you’ll be on the cutting
edge of technology (and you’ll save money tool). Turn the page for details.
nAntiiim* Choose Quantex and Take The Technology Lead „
PFHVK'l! Good Choice.
Did You Know?
I Quantex is recognized as a leader
in performance and technology.
Quantex has appeared on the cover of
I Computer Shopper 3 times in 1996!
I (April, August and December, 1996)
I Quantex PC's consistently offer
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Quantex has received PC Computif^’s
coveted ’***«*4-star rating 3 years in
a row (1994, 1995, 1996).
B Quantex consistently o&rs industry
recognized value and quality.
Quantex has been on the Windows
Magazine’s Recommended List 39
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H Quantex consistently offers award-
winning PC solutions. In 1995 and
1996, Quantex won 11 PC World Best
Buy awards and has been on the PC
World Top 20 List over 40 times.
I Quantex provides the best PC's for
the small/home office. Quantex was
recently selected as Home PC
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Combine MMX (tm) technology by Intel *,
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VlDlnll
MOCESSOIS 0 S 50 n tOO IS 150 ITS »)
Asm.** nM MMX
Tkh/uUgy^OOMHz
Pintnm' tatk MMX
TkhmltgylMMHz
Frothm'200MHz
Dminm' 166 MHt
<Wf*)n 2 0 oiWB Om iWh fiiMa el OIpM Wd antUMi
Systems Loaded With The Best and Brightest
The (Quantex) QP5/200 SM-3.
which earned this roundup's highest
performance/features score, is an
attractive choice for businesses.’
PC Magazine, 2/4/97
Pentium*
We never compromise. Quantex systems are brimming with only top-performing components.
Here’s a sampling of this month’s offering:
■ 4GB Hard Drive - THE largest EIDE hard drive available. Quantex brings you the largest
EIDE hard drive and has put it in the fastest multimedia system available.
■ Toshiba's 12X CD-ROM - Always on the cutting-edge, Quantex systems include Toshiba’s
12X EIDE CD-ROM, the fastest CD-ROM drive available. You’ll be impressed with its
125m$ access time and 1800KB/s transfer rate.
SMn Ua M.ta t|* (in « at* * *«a • «aa i **<aaaa< a* ■<***.<* to«***a
c<«iaallKi a iaiaBd»naaaai ) aai a loilMMaap»4ri>kiiaaaa 5k a aa w a liaMk ■**■•■*■*•(
Multimedia Performance
QP5/200SM-3 $2499
Business leose:$ 88/month
■ 200MHz Pentium Processor with MMX' Technology
■ 32MB EDO Memory / 512KB Pipelined Burst Cache*
(Upgnde to 32MB SDRAM for S20)
■ 4GB EIDE Mode 4 HD / 3.5“ 1.44MB Floppy Drive
(Upgrade to Seagate Barracuda 4GB SCS/ HD w/ Adaptec SCSJ Controtler tor S679I
■ Matrox Millennium 3D w/4MB WRAM
■ MAG 17“ Digital Monitor (16.1“ viewable)
(Special upgrade to MAG DX700T tor S99}
■ 33.6 Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Mail and Speakerphone
(Add Motorola Terminal Adapter for SI 891
■ Toshiba 12X 125ms EIDE CD-ROM Drive
(Upgrade to the Panasonic PD Drive tor $179)
■ Ensoniq VIVO-90 32-Bit Wavetable Synthesizer
■ Altec Lansing ACS45 Speakers w/subwoofer
(Special upgrade to ACS-400 speakers with ACS-2S0 subwoofer for S99)
■ Mid-Tower Case
■ 104-Key Keyboard With MS PS/2 Mouse
■ MS Windows '95 With MS Plus
■ Quantex Software Bundle (Including Corel WordPerfect Suite)
■ 3-year limited Warranty. 24-hr./7-day Technical Support
QP5/1 66 SM-3(w/MMX Ttchnology) $2299
P 6 / 2 0 0 SM-3(w/Pantium Pro procBiior). $2549
B'^^'Pentium Pro 200 includes 256KB Inferno! L2 Coche)
Power Multimedia Series
■ Matrox MiUennium graphics • As the professional’s choice, the Millennium
provides an award-winning 64-bit 3D graphics engine and Windows RAM
(WRAM) for maximum performance.
A Bundle That Tops OflfThc Value (over 20 Titles!)
■ I 66 MH 2 Pentium Processor w/hMX' technology
■ 32MB EDO Memory / 6t2KB Pipelifted Burst Cache
■ 2.SGB EIDE Mode 4 HO / 3.5* 1 44MB Floppy Drive
■ Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 w/4MB EDO DRAM
■ MAG IS* Digital Monitor (14.0* viewable)
■ 33.6 Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Mail and Speakerphone
■ Toshiba 12X 125ms EIDE CD-ROM Drive
(Upgrade to Panasonic PD Drive for S179)
■ Ensoniq VIVO-90 32-6it Wavetable Synthesizer
■ Altec Lansing ACS-90 Speakers
■ Mid-Tower Case
■ 1044ev Keyboard With MS PS/2 Mouse
■ MS Windows '95 With MS Plus
■ Quantex Software Bundle (Including Corel WordPerfect Suite)
■ 3-year limited Werranty. 24-hr77-day Technical Support
QP5/200 SM-1 [w/MMX' Technology] $2099
4^ft^NQP6/200 SM-1 (w/Pontium Pro procester]...$21 49
QP5/166SM -2
$21991 ^
Busirwss
ieose:
77/mo.
1166MHz Pentium Processor w/MMX** technology
132MB EDO Memory /512KB Pipelined Burst Cache
1 3.2GB EIDE Mode 4 HD / 3.5* 1 .44MB Floppy Drive
I STB Velocity 30 w/4MB VRAM
I MAG 17* Digital Monitor (16.1* vieweblel
1 33.6 Kbps Fax/Modem w/Vbice Mail and Speakerphone
IToshiba 12X 125ms EIDE CD-ROM Drive
(Upgrade to Panasonic PD Drive for SI 79)
I Ensoniq VIVO-90 32-Bit Wavetable Synthesizer
I Altec Lansing ACS-45 Speakers w/$ubwoofer
I Mid-Tower Case
1 104-Key Keyboard With MS PS/2 Mouse
I MS Vyindows ‘95 With MS Plus
I Quantex Software Bundle (Including Corel WordPerfect Suite)
1 3-vear limited Warranty. 24-hr./7-day Technical Support
QP5/200 SM*2(w/MMX* Technology) $2399
$2449
SM-2(w/Poniiom Pro procettor).
* a
QP6/200SM4 $27991 ?
Business
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98/month
■ 200MHz ^ntium Pro Processor
■ 64MB EDO Memory / 256K8 Internal L2 Cache
■ 4GB EIDE Mode 4 HD / 3.5' 1.44MB Floppy Drive
■ Matrox Millennium 30 w/4MB WRAM
■ M/\G 17* Digital Monitor (16.1* viewable)
■ 33.6 Kbps Fax/Modem w/Vbice Mail and Speakerphone
■ Toshiba 12X 12Sms EIDE CD-ROM Drive
By offering the #1 choice in office suites, Corel’s® WordPerfect® Suite 7, as well as
over a dozen additional titles, Quantex offers a deal that simply cannot be beat!
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■ ATX Case
■ t044ey Keyboard With MS PS/2 Mouse
■ MS Windows '95 With MS Plus
■ Quantex Software Bundle (Including Corel WordPerfect Suite)
■ 3-year limited Werranly.244if77-day Technical Support
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TECHNOLOGY ON THE WAY
The ten technologies that will determine the course of
personal computing in the year 2000 and beyond.
By Bill Howard
n the late 1400s, Leonardo da Vinci
conceived — as sketches in his note-
books — airplanes, helicopters, and
parachutes. It took centuries for these
conceptions to become products, be-
cause in da Vinci's time the gulf was so
vast between what his mind could imagine
and what technology could deliver.
Today, we are similarly frustrated be-
cause what we imagine — continuous speech
recognition, for instance, or software that
acts on our behalf — might take a decade or
two to go from technical concept to working
product. No matter how fast the pace of
progress, we want it to be faster. Still, actual
progress clearly is faster each year.
In this section, PC Magazine examines
ten of the most important unfolding tech-
nologies of today that hold the most
promise for tomorrow. They have the po-
tential to reshape the way you work ^
and live in the coming years and
decades. At the very least, they’ll
make your computer run
faster and let you hold
more information in ever-
smaller boxes.
Specifically, the topics
covered here are home
and business PCs; the mi-
croprocessors that power
them and the storage and
display technologies that make them pro-
ductive; distributed computing; alternate
user interfaces and agent software; and
business networking and connectivity to
the home.
In each case, we describe where the
technology is today, what's tran
spiring in the research labs,
and where we believe the
technology will be in the
next S to IS years. In addi-
tion, for each technology
covered, at PC Magazine
Labs we’ve reviewed the
leading examples of the
technology as it exists today.
Unlike most PC Magazine sto
lies, these aren’t intended to report
comprehensive A-to-Z tests of all prod-
ucts. Rather, we’ve picked the most
promising and the most intriguing exam-
^ pies, as you’ll read in the second sec-
Ll tion on each topic.
* i l Although much of the future of
technology is a subject for conjecture, we
do know that the computer of 2010 will be a
cross between things that might seem fa-
miliar to you and to George Jetson. The
majority will be laptop-size,
because the components
won’t need more room than
that. Processor speeds will be
measured in gigahertz rather
than megahertz; RAM will
perhaps be measured in giga-
bytes rather than megabytes,
and who knows how much
disk capacity we’ll have?
There will be many mass stor-
age alternatives, but for all
the gee-whiz technology we’ve seen, we’re
most impressed by what you still can do
with rust — iron oxide, the coating on the
good old Winchester-technology hard disk.
PCs will be TVs, high-definition TVs will
be PCs, and they will all have telephones
and video cameras attached. The
PC may become a multipur-
pose device controlling heat
and security in the home;
conversely, security de-
vices and thermostats may
become Uttle PCs that talk
to other PCs in your home.
PCs could do the same for
\ our office at work .
We expect voice recognition
and handwriting recognition to sup-
plement but not replace the keyboard in
the foreseeable future. And that means
that no matter how small you might some-
day make a computer, you shouldn’t
make your main computer much smaller
than today’s notebook computer. Your
142 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
lirtsrtctivB Tour Join us for a virtual walk Uuough tfie technologies of both yesterday and tomorrow, www.pcnm.ecnt
In This Section
1
fingers rebel at a key-
board less than 10
inches across, just as
your eye looks askance
at displays that try to
cram information on something much
smaller than a sheet of paper.
Voice and signature recognition could
be ingredients for better security; also for
better global communication. Today we’re
at the cusp of continuous speech recogni-
tion, not just speak-slow-ly-in-to-the-mi-
cro-phone recog-
nition. In part, this
advance is be-
cause of the ma-
chines’ improved
ability to under-
stand contextual
soundalikes and phrases (“Did you go to
the store for two lemons, too?’’).
Some technologies central to the PC
today could well fade. The CD or DVD
drive is a godsend now. But will you need
either if you have an ultrafast connection
into your home or office and can get any
piece of data from any place instantly? If
you do have an infinitely fast data pipe (or
seemingly so), then it’s possible that there
will be a place for a network computer, a
device that displays information and cal-
culations done at the
far end of the wire.
One of the murkiest
areas is projecting the
technology we’ll use to
get all that data: Hyperfast phone line?
Cable TV cable? Satellite dish? And what
kind of vendor will provide it? Other tech-
nologies might fade without ever reaching
the potential once ascribed to them: The
64-Kbps ISDN technology that seemed
blindingly fast when modems ran at 2,400
bits per second seems stagnant now that
modems are approaching 56,000 bps.
The human mind can absorb and act
on a bit more infor-
mation each year,
but the amount of
information being
aimed at us in-
creases geometri-
cally. The next 15
years will see big
strides in technolo-
gies that help us fil-
ter and act on all the data we get. Why,
for instance, couldn’t a smart agent track
the individual schedules of the members
of a workgroup and determine the best
time for them to meet?
Back in the 1400s there were no venture
capitalists bothering
Leonardo over time-to-
market issues. Yet da
Vinci’s notebooks have
come full circle to the
twentieth century in at
least one respect: One
of them is now owned
by Bill Gates.
BUSINESS COMPUTERS
146 Someday, office workers
will be able to compute anywhere,
anytime. Today, network comput-
ers battle PCs for IT’s attention.
HOME COMPUTERS
158 Tomorrow's home may
have a different computer in
every room, but the first non-
tradltlonal PCs for the home are
just emerging.
MICROPROCESSORS
1 68 Faster and smaller chips
roll out every year as chip design-
ers debate the physical and finan-
cial limits of their art.
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
- ' W-i
1 80 Technologies for bigger,
brighter, and flatter displays are
starting to pay off, but for now few
' '
of us can afford to get in the game.
MASS STORAGE
1 82 Eventually, we'll store
data as atoms and holographs. In
the meantime, we'll keep making
current devices smaller and faster.
AGENT SOFTWARE
190 The first intelligent
software for taking control of the
i
/'i
Internet hints at how friendly the
H
Web can be-and should be.
m
DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
1
1 98 Advances in distributed
objects and directory services are
■
giving us the powerful PC networks
Bk
we've been waiting for.
B
USER INTERFACES
206 Completely reliable voice
and handwriting recognition may
still be down the road, but several
new products show the way.
BUSINESS NETWORKING
a
214 The technologies already
exist for the networks we'll need in
a
ten years. We may even be abie to
W'
afford them by then.
HOME CONNECTIVITY
K
220 A variety of competing
products for high-speed home
'' '.■ 'j
access are starting to become
available (and just In time, too).
%
if
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JACK HARRIS/VISUAL LOGIC; PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOM O'CONNOR
MARCHl^ IW7 PC MAGAZINE 143
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LOOKING FORWARD
FUTI IPP
Business COMPUTERS
Light, mobile PCs and high-
speed nets will foster
"ubiquitous computing."
By Jim Seymour
They won’t look
much like today's
machines, and we
won't work with
them exactly as we
do today. But 15
years from now, personal computers by
whatever name, in whatever size, at what-
ever prices, are still going to be among the
central forces driving Corporate America.
From form factor to connectivity op-
tions to management and control of these
devices and the electronic world to which
they are connected, the “desktop PCs" of
the year 2012 will be very different beasts
from today’s machines.
For one thing, the notion of “desktop”
PCs will itself be largely obsolete.
Though not all workers will carry PCs
around for working away from their
desks, fixed-location PCs that are too
heavy to carry easily will be anachro-
nisms. The PCs of 2012 will be much
more like the notebooks of today in
terms of size and weight.
A typical machine will probably still be
no smaller than a piece of typing paper,
8.5 by 1 1 inches — mainly because we'll
still be using keyboards for much of our
data entry, and our fingers aren’t getting
any smaller. But these new-era machines
will be much thinner and lighter than
today's notebooks: less than an inch thick,
certainly, and probably only 2 to 3
pounds. Their thin displays will be almost
as large as the lid of each machine: again.
146 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Computers at Work:
The Next Generation
Take a last look at the bulky system
sifting on your desk: Tomorrow s
PCs will be much smaller, with lots
of local intelligence but central
storage of most if not all applica-
tions. And Mcur MIS department
will oversee and configure all of it.
Wireless LANs and WANs will be
the norm, giving all of us access to
ubiquitous computing. In addition,
with improved speech recognition
and greater processing power,
you’ll probably talk to your com-
puter as much as you type.
physical form factors derive as much from
human factors as from available technol-
ogy. and we won’t want to carry around
PCs any larger than necessary. They will
have brilliant color, high resolution, and
probably “zoom resolution" features to
allow users to zoom in on small details. Of
course, this all hinges on the cost-effec-
tiveness of such micro-thin components.
The CPUs in these wonders will run at
much higher speeds than today’s Pentium
and PowerPC chips. Look for 128-bil or
wider designs, running at 10 GHz or so.
They will run at much lower voltages than
today’s chips, in order to keep the power
supplies at an acceptable size and weight.
Primary storage will probably still be
magnetic, because of the ubiquitous and
unremarkable use of data compression
techniques, because the universal use of
network storage will dampen our demand
for vast in-the-box storage capacity, and
because rust (magnetic oxide) is always
cheaper than glass (optical) or other exot-
ic systems. Remember bubble memory?
Vastly improved ballerv technology
LOOKING FORWARD
plus greater attention to low-power dis-
plays, CPUs, and other components will
mean most of us will use these machines
without an AC-cord tether. Drop them into
a “recharging tray” and in 2 hours they'll be
ready to run for another 20 hours or so.
THl'^OICiPC”
Though we’ll probably never slop carping
about keyboard quality, by 2012 voice
input will be so widespread that we’ll talk
a lot less about key travel and N-key
rollover. Today’s voice recognition sys-
tems generally demand discrete speech, in
which/you/must/speak/like/this. allowing
short pauses between words. “Continuous
speech," in which you talk normally, re-
quires much more computing power than
is found in today's typical desktop PC —
but that power will exist in abundance in
the PCs of 2012, and voice input will be
easy, natural, and accurate. For most
input you’ll simply speak normally, your
words captured by a high-sensitivity
noise-canceling microphone built into
your PC. To record in very noisy
locations, you’ll probably use a
tiny “ear mike,” such as today’s
little-finger-size Plantronics mi-
crophone headset devices.
The use of speech recognition
fits well with another important
function of the PC you’ll be using in 2012:
It will also be your full-time wireless tele-
phone, with deep integration between
computer and telephony functions. No
more returning to your hotel room at 1:00
A.M. to puzzle through a message garbled
by a hotel operator. Your PC, which will
always be turned on anyway, will play
back your messages — having already
auto-answered many of them, with its
agents having handled others — when you
get back to your room.
We can’t look at 2012’s business com-
puters without including the by-then-com-
monplace “NCs,” the successors to today’s
new and overhyped “network computers.”
The market will have long since adopted
network computer-like devices for many
INSIDE
NnwosKcoMniiiiu
FR0MC<Wa.ltM.
AND SUN
FUTUAENAND-HEtD
OEVKE IDEAS HtOAUlM
A. Standard microphones will enable you
to input voice data into a voice-
activated PC.
B. Multiple LCD panels will provide
continuous updates of information
C Some PCs will still have local storage
with terabytes of space.
D. A thin client will conr>ect to a LAN via
a wireless fast Ethernet network that
is centrally managed.
traditional office functions, espe-
cially background tasks that do not
demand the power of a true suc-
cessor to today’s PCs. We’ll be way
beyond a one-worker/one-com-
puter ratio, with systems scattered
all over our offices (and homes);
these son-of-NC boxes will make that prac-
tical and affordable.
Sound farfetched? More revolutionary
than evolutionary? We have no doubt
that some people will still be using only
marginally evolved versions of today’s 40-
pound desktop PCs, monitors, and key-
boards — we hear every week from people
who are still using PC-XTs, DOS, and
Lotus 1-2-3 Release la. But the market,
and our work habits, will have moved so
far from today’s paradigm that those tools
will look as silly as an XT with a CGA dis-
play showing a 1-2-3 graph in pink, baby
blue, and off-white does today.
CONNICnVITV
In 2012, expect your PC to be constantly
connected, wherever you are. Today’s wire-
less LAN systems (such as Proxim’s Range-
LAN2) are teaching us about the usefulness
of wireless LAN connectivity within the of-
fice. It turns out that wireless LAN connec-
tions aren’t just for PCs in remote comers of
the office — those famous hard-to-pull-wire-
to places — but are also great for notebook
users who want to wander throughout a
building but still be connected to the LAN
in seconds, if not continuously.
The data gurus already have a term for
this wander-anywhere/stay-connected ap-
proach: ubiquitous computing. As odd as
that notion may sound today, in IS years it
will be commonplace. Indeed, we’ll laugh
at the idea that the norm for networking
PCs could be pulling wire and plugging in.
Today’s limited wireless-LAN transmis-
sion speeds and operating distance will be
distant memories; with few exceptions,
only servers will be physically connected
via cabling.
Outside our offices, we’ll rely on some-
thing like Metricom’s Ricochet broadcast
system to keep connected. That constant
connectivity will be important, because
increasingly, we will do our work away
from a central office. Indeed, many expect
the notion of a central office, full of dedi-
cated workspaces for employees, to be it-
self a victim of the years between now and
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 147
LOOKiNC FORWARD
2012. Instead, “hoteling” arrangements,
in which workers will visit a central facili-
ty at regular but not daily intervals, seem
likely to replace many of today's dreary
rows of cubicles. (Will Dilbert approve of
the change? Of course not.)
The speed of these network connec-
tions will be greater, probably much
greater, than today’s common 10 Mbps,
uncommon but welcome 100 Mbps, and
coming-soon "Gigabit Ethernet." Pre-
dicting actual speeds is getting out on thin
ice, but we'll say gigabit-plus intra-office
LAN communications will be common,
and truly high-speed links will be avail-
able for those who really want them. Out-
side the office, we may have to suffer
along at only 100 Mbps or so.
MANAOIMtNT
The key issues for managing PCs in corpo-
rations over the next several years will be
control, standardization, and lifetime cost.
(Hmmm: Those sound like today’s hot but-
tons ) Efforts by the Desktop Manage-
ment Task Force, particularly its evolving
Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
standard, are focusing on remote "manage-
ability" — in other words, MIS’s ability to
control, configure, and reconfigure your PC
remotely. This sounds Strangelovian, and it
makes a lot of today’s PC users uneasy.
Will the MIS people be able to detect
that you have reconfigured your PC, and in
a nonstandard way? Yes, if it’s possible for
you to reconfigure it at all. Will they be able
to tell that you’ve installed unauthorized
software titles — perhaps illegal copies of
programs you bought or otherwise ac-
quired for your home machine — on your
PC at work? Yes again — if. in a limited-
local-storage world, there’s a way for you to
put those programs on the machine in the
first place. Will MIS be able to reconfigure
the machine completely, delete unautho-
rized programs, and restore it to the form it
was in when that nice young woman from
MIS delivered it to your desk? You bet.
Uncomfortable? Remember that it’s
that same technology, already moving into
many widely used network management
products, that also lets MIS “push”-install
new software releases on your machine
rather than sending around disks or a CD-
ROM or, worse, requiring a tech to come
fiddle with your machine for an hour. Ditto
on upgrading your system’s BIOS code.
148 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
The technology also lets MIS survey your
company’s installed base of PCs, watch for
usage patterns, and make sure there are
enough concurrent-use software licenses to
keep you and the company legal. And it lets
you communicate with coworkers a lot
more easily, by being able to send messages
and share files without worries about which
version of what the other person is using.
So, creepy or not, DMI and its vastly
more powerful and controlling successors
are going to be very important. We think
you’ll soon become used to the idea of
Your PC will
become an appliance, not
making nearly the same
demands on your time as
today s PCs.
MIS overseeing your PC. And given the
much more complex world of wireless
connectivity and ubiquitous computing,
you’ll probably appreciate how many bur-
dens it takes off your shoulders,
ZnO ASMINISTIIATION
Not to be outdone, Microsoft also has an
initiative that not only takes the burden of
overseeing your PC from you but re-
moves much of it from the network ad-
ministrator as well. Microsoft’s Zero Ad-
ministration plan aims to minimize the
time users and network administrators
spend under the hoods of their PCs by au-
tomating labor-intensive tasks, such as in-
stalling and updating software.
Under this initiative, during a networked
PC’s boot-up, it would check with the serv-
er, the office intranet, or the Internet for op-
erating-system updates and would then
download and automatically install the ap-
plicable ones. It could automatically up-
grade software drivers for networked print-
ers, graphics cards, network cards, modems,
and other peripherals without input from
the user and with relatively minor input
from the network administrator.
An Automatic Desktop feature would
provide workstation users with all available
applications, using a single installation rou-
tine. Under the plan, users would also be
able to “reflect” personal data to the server,
a feature that would allow them to change
workstations or log on to the server remote-
ly and end up with the same personalized
desktop, applications, and personal data.
CENTIIAUZIO SUNRVISION
The Zero Administration initiative gives
network administrators far more leeway
in controlling the network as well as indi-
vidual workstations. The administrator
would be able to lock down the network
or fine-tune access rights for individual
desktops from a central location.
Another key point of Zero Adminis-
tration is the implementation of Mi-
crosoft’s new Active Platform, a software
development platform for intranet and In-
ternet applications. The Active Platform
has three key components: the Active
Desktop, Active Server, and ActiveX.
The Active Desktop offers software
developers language-independent script-
ing, new dynamic HTML technology, and
other tools for designing applications that
will run on multiple operating systems.
Active Server provides additional sup-
port for developing Web applications on
Windows NT-based servers. The Ac-
tiveX component permits software in dif-
ferent languages on different operating
systems to communicate within a single
machine and across a network.
According to Microsoft, the functions
described in the Zero Administration plan
will be available “to varying degrees” in fu-
ture versions of Windows 95 and Windows
NT Workstation and will be available in the
upcoming Windows NT Server 5.0. You
can find additional information about Zero
Administration on Microsoft’s Web site.
THE INVISIBLl PC
At first glance, these changes may seem
less than welcome, even steps backward
from the Wild West of today’s PCs. In
fact, though, they won’t be such a big deal
for you. Your PC will have become simply
an appliance, not drawing nearly the same
attention, nor making nearly the demands
on your time for grooming and mainte-
nance, as today’s PCs.
It will have become part of the back-
ground noise in business — an information
appliance about as remarkable as, say,
today’s fax machines and office copiers.
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Copyrighted malarial
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING BUSINESS COMPUTERS
NCs GO UP AGAINST THE PC
Network computer vendors offer many variations on the single-minded theme of
reducing the soaring cost of PC support. By Tony Pompiii
A lluring to IT departments, network
computers (NCs) are advancing on
the desktop scene with the promise of
lower prices and operation costs. T radition-
ally targeted to terminal emulator markets,
NCs are making their push on the basis of
horsepower that can run a richer array of
applications than terminals do, including
Web browsers, Java appli-
cations, and even Win-
dows programs. Although
this expanded support is i
standard in most of the \
newer NCs, implementa-
tions differ subtly depend-
ing on how vendors envi-
sion the evolving market.
To a greater extent than
terminals and a lesser de-
gree than PCs, NCs use net-
works and servers rather
than local hard disks or
other storage devices to
load appUcations and
data. In the absence of
hard disks and other hard-
ware, NCs are potentially
easier to maintain and replace than PCs.
Here, we look at NCs from three ven-
dors we think will be major players in this
nascent market: IBM Network Computer
Division’s Network Station, Sun Mi-
crosystems' JavaStation, and Corel’s
Video Network Computer. Each compa-
ny is hoping that its newest offering will
appeal to corporations and other large or-
ganizations gravitating toward NC tech-
nology. and to any that want to decrease
hardware support and maintenance costs
over the long term.
THINCDWINID
Network computers probably resemble
each other more than they differ. All the
NCs in our group have built-in network
adapters and serial, parallel, mouse, and
keyboard ports. Some supply a keyboard
and a mouse as part of the base configura-
tion, and some offer an optional monitor.
Regardless of the manufacturer, these
NCs are the same in terms of installation
and maintenance. To install, you simply
connect the NC to the network and boot
it. Then you can specify the applications
that users can access by making a few
changes to a centrally maintained user
profile. Should the NC fail, you just swap
— il out for another unit (since
’ most configuration informa-
tion as well as the user profile
^ is stored centrally). Power up
V- the new machine and you’re
ready to go. No data restora-
tion or other system cus-
tomization is necessary, since
the new unit will download
the same setup configuration
that the failed NC used during
its first'boot.
To be fair, we should men-
tion that NCs have been
around for years from other
companies, such as Network
Corel's Video Network Computer Computing Devices (NCD),
isoptimliedforJ...andfor Tektronix, and even
Hewlett-Packard. But these
devices have mostly been replacements for
dumb terminals. The newest and more in-
teresting products attempt to run a greater
range of applications, from terminal emu-
lators to Windows programs to emerging
Java applications. NCs are also meeting
basic, agreed-on standards
outlined in the Net-
work Computer Ref-
erence Profile (an ini-
tiative spearheaded by
Oracle). Like the
Multimedia PC (MPC)
specification, the NC
Reference Profile de-
scribes general operat-
ing parameters for NCs,
such as basic network-
ing procedures on
TCP/IP, the Ethernet
protocol, and sup- ibm's Network station will run the java VM,u
ported file formats, well as S2S0 and }270 emulators.
mobilised use.
BIG BLUl, UTTU BLUI
IBM’s vast experience with large net-
works is apparent in its new Network Sta-
tion, a system designed for short-term ter-
minal emulation and for the use of Java
applications in the long run. Codeveloped
by NCD, the Network Station will include
high-performance emulators, such as
AS/400 5250 and MVS/VMS 3270. Ex-
pecting growth in the Java arena. IBM is
also including the Java virtual machine,
software that runs Java applications.
The Network Station runs on a 33-MHz
PowerPC 403 CPU with SMB of memory
(expandable to 64MB). Like its competi-
tors, the system comes with a built-in net-
work adapter, either Ethernet (10 Mbps
now but expanding to 100 Mbps later this
year) or Token-Ring. The unit also has
keyboard, serial, parallel, and mouse ports.
The Network Station uses a streamlined
operating system, the Network Station OS,
for loading network stacks and basic I/O
and GUI features. Like other NCs, the unit
loads much of the OS from the server dur-
ing boot-up. so Uttle of the OS resides in the
unit’s BIOS. And like its competitors, IBM
uses standard TCP/IP-addressing applica-
tions, such as BOOTP, to assign IP ad-
dresses and to locate boot servers.
Since the Network Station loads its OS
and applications from the network, it is at
the mercy of the network’s bandwidth,
like any NC. IBM expects the full boot
process to take roughly 2 minutes, de-
pending on OS options and the applica-
tions loaded. To minimize boot time by re-
ducing the amount of startup code
transferred across the network, IBM will
later offer a PC Card flash card (the unit
features one Type II slot)
and store the OS on-board.
On the software side, in
addition to using the Java
virtual machine, the Net-
work Station will include
emulator applications that
will run directly on top of the
unit’s OS. IBM believes this
approach will provide
better performance
than running the emulators
as Java applets. The Network
Station will also be preloaded with
Netscape's browser Navigator 3.0, to pro-
vide users with ac-
cess to Web servers
150 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
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QUiflobottos'
Copyrighted material
«
LOOKING FORWARD
The Future of Hand-Held Devices, IBM Style
fly Carol Venezia
i n this, our fifteenth-anniver-
sary Issue, we’ve devoted a lot
of space to discussing the future
of high technology. Some of the
predictions we've made in these
pages may be difficult to envision
coming true. But after we spoke
with IBM about what’s cooking at
its Almaden research center, the
vision became clearer.
We had the opportunity to
delve into the mind and the ideas
of IBM Fellow Dr. Ted Selker. who
heads the User Systems
Ergonomics Research (USER)
The Room
withe View's
viewboerd (top) and the
diminutive Palm PC 110.
group at IBM's Research Division
in San jose. California. The USER
group comprises about 20 people
(half of them students from
Stanford and other universities,
and half of them IBMers) who
research and develop ways of
making interfacing with comput-
ers more intelligently planned,
useful, and intuitive. A great
example of this group’s work is
IBM’s TrackPoint pointing device,
which Dr. Selker invented.
The products discussed here
may seem fantastic, but they are
ail based on the same premises:
Technology should be useful but
unobtrusive: it should have a
distinct purpose and fulfill a need.
And it should do ail of this as
effectively and easily as a ball-
point pen performs its task.
TtCHNOLOGY TO CO
The advent of the Windows CE
hand-held PC may have brought
us closer to truly useful mobile
computing, but IBM's vision of a
wallet PC takes this idea one step
further: A typical trifold wallet is
outfitted with a miniscanner, a
display area, and a keyboard. It's
a PC. pager. Web browser, PIM.
PDA. and more, all in your back
pocket. The wallet would also
offer a "chameleon card’’— a
single card with a program-
mable magnetic stripe that
would take the place of all
of your credit cards.
Another idea that
qualifies as useful and
unobtrusive technology
to go is the electronic
carbon-copy pad. This
produrt takes an interest-
ng approach to mixed media;
You give someone a note
you've scribbled out (like
one of those notes you’ve
scribbled cki napkins in restau-
rants). but you also have an
electronic record for yourself.
This process greatly increases the
tangibility of computer use. a
feature that is often lacking in
today's PCs— one of the major
reasons why many consumers
find PCs unapproachable.
Another portable idea from
the USER group involves IBM’s
Palm Top PC 110, a minia-
ture 486-based PC that’s
been a great success in
japan. The version we saw
adds two intriguing fea-
tures. First, there's a clip on
the back, so you can attach
the fully functional. Win-
dows 95-compatible PC to
your belt loop. Second, the
display panel is hinged and
opens in the back, so when
you return to your desk, you can
project the screen’s image onto
the wall. A proposal currently on
the table from the USER team is
for an inexpensive tablet-size PC
for schools. It would replace the
paper notebooks that grade-
school children carry.
This PC (about the size of a
paperback book) has a touch
screen and an infrared transceiv-
er. which can be used to down-
load assignments nightly, upload
the student’s work in the morn-
ing, and correct it. The education
PC’s keyboard is another unique
feature; It’s LCD-based, so you
can change it from letters to
numbers to symbols, depending
on the task.
AROOM WITHAVIEW
Perhaps the most fascinating
prototype that we saw was the
Room with a View. This product (a
working model of which currently
resides in Dr. Selker’s office)
addresses two necessities of
human nature, to be oriented
(why do you think you spend so
much time arranging those Win 95
icons on your PC's desktop?) and
to be productive.
The Room with a View oper-
ates something like a virtual-
reality office. Instead of having
bookshelves in your office, you'd
have a projection of those
shelves and their
contents on the
wall. If you want-
The education PC’s display
keyboard can change with the
assignment.
ed a book from the shelf, you’d
simply pick up your ''viewboard’’
(a high-resolution LCD-based
tablet), point it at the image of
the book on the wall, and retrieve
the book by shooting it with the
viewboard's built-in laser. The
information contained in the
book would now be right in front
of you. in an easy-to-use format.
nUCKROINT ON A STICK
The remote control is a useful
device, but it’s also an idea run
amuck. Remember when you had
just one renrK>te for your TV? Well,
now you have five, and they're all
gigantic. CXjt of this confusion
came the idea for a universal.
TrackPoint-based remote.
This remote control would
rely on a GUI with pie-shaped
menus instead of on physical
buttons to perform tasks, like
changing channels or adjust-
ing volume. You would make
selections through specified,
easy-to-remember move-
ments. But the beauty of
it is that you’d need
only one remote for
^ everything, and it
would be easy to
use and no larger
than a good
Cuban cigar.
lectronic Post-It notes
(left), the wallet PC and the
TrackPoint remote.
152 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted rr^atsrial
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LOOKING FORWARD
across the Internet or within an intranet.
For accessing Windows applications,
IBM (like its competitors) is relying on
third-party products rather than offering its
own emulator. One choice is NCD’s Win-
Center Pro, a software
package that combines
remote-control tech-
nology with a multiuser
Windows NT server
implementation. Ap-
plications run on the
remote Windows NT
server, with keyboard
and mouse commands
and screens being the
only data sent between
it and the NC.
The Network Station also needs a serv-
er application to which it can talk, so IBM
provides its Network Computer Manager
(NC Manager). This application runs on a
variety of IBM host platforms, including
RS/6000, AS/400, and S/390. NC Manager
also interfaces with user management soft-
ware native to the platform, so system ad-
ministrators can use their own software to
create NC user profiles. IBM expects to
have a Microsoft Windows NT Server ver-
sion of the Network Computer Manager
available later this year.
For hard-core IBM shops, IBM ex-
pects to have coaxial and twinaxial ver-
sions of the Network Station available
later this year. The system’s SMB version,
available now, will cost under $700 (street
price) with keyboard and mouse.
HAVIAUTTUJAV*
Sun Microsystems, the mover and shaker
behind Java, is so committed to Java com-
patibility that it built its JavaStation around
Java from the ground up. Admitting that
no major Java applications yet exist. Sun
notes that over 400 software developers
have expressed interest in developing
such programs, which the company says
indicates Java's popularity as an OS-inde-
pendent applications development lan-
guage. From terminal emulators to the
browser and applications, if it runs on the
JavaStation, it's written in Java. Available
now, this machine uses Sun's 100-MHz
microSPARC II processor. It includes the
standard I/O ports as well as speaker and
headphone jacks, and it runs with SMB of
RAM. It also comes with an Ethernet
For Net surfing or
limiteci Windows apps
use, an NC might fit. But
for power users, the PC
still serves best.
lOBase-T adapter, which will be upgraded
to 100 Mbps by mid-1997.
At the root of the JavaStation’s soft-
ware is Sun’s network computer operating
system, JavaOS. On top of it runs the Java
virtual machine. Sun
also ships a user inter-
face called Hot-Java
Views, a GUI for run-
ning applications and
configuring the ma-
chine. Hot-Java Views
(written completely in
Java) also includes a
set of Java applets,
such as an address
book and e-mail. Also
pivotal to the JavaSta-
tion’s strategy is HotJava. a fully Java-
based Web browser.
Like IBM’s Network Station, the
JavaStation needs a server component
during boot-up to
download the OS and
applications. At this
time, the server
process runs only on
Sun servers, but Sun
expects third-party
developers to port
the server software
to other platforms.
To speed up the OS
boot process. Sun is
thinking of offering a
version of its system
with a built-in OS for
local loading.
Adhering to the
Web standard, Java
applications can load not only from Sun
servers but also from any HTTP server.
Currently shipping, the JavaStation is $742
(hst price) with mouse, keyboard, and SMB
of RAM.
ceim. AND THi raincT appucation
Corel, popular software vendor and vocal
proponent of Java applications, has de-
signed a network computer optimized to
run full-bore Java applications. Still in de-
velopment. the Video Network Computer
(VNC) complements Corel’s forthcoming
Corel Office for Java, a business produc-
tivity software suite that will include
streamlined Java versions of WordPer-
fect, Quattro Pro, and Chart.
Sun's long-awaited JavaStation was de-
signed to run Java apps, from JavaOS to
HotJava Views.
Similar outwardly to the Corel Video
Console, the VNC includes the usual I/O
ports as well as speaker and microphone
jacks. It also provides two PC Card slots.
Taking a more aggressive approach to mo-
bile NC use than its competitors, Corel
plans to use the slots for connecting mass
storage devices, such as hard disks, so that
users will be able to carry the notebook-size
NC between office and home. At home,
where the network connection is probably
slower, end users can plug a hard disk into a
PC Card slot and use it to download the OS
and applications more quickly. Through
V.34 dial-up networking via an ISP, users
will still have the flexibility to load Java ap-
plications from a variety of Internet servers.
Corel plans to ship the VNC with 32MB
of base memory (expandable to 64MB) —
significantly more than IBM and Sun — be-
cause it considers this amount preferable
for running Java applications. The VNC
uses a Motorola MPC 821, a RISC-
based processor with a built-
in V.34 modem chip
set, which further
supports Corel’s po-
sitioning of the VNC
for mobile use. Corel
expects to use HDS’s
Net OS with the unit.
The VNC also comes
with a video camera,
which hangs over the
monitor to allow for
videoconferencing. The
camera is a high-com-
pression digital model,
and it takes care of
compression functions
itself instead of relying on the CPU,
The Corel VNC is expected to cost be-
tween $500 and $700 (street) and should be
available in the second quarter of this year.
THI BOTTOM UNI
With this generation of NCs shipping in the
coming months, it should become clearer
whether they have a place in your organi-
zation. For Internet or intranet surfing,
basic terminal emulation, or limited use of
Windows applications, NCs might be a
perfect fit. Then it’s a matter of choosing
whose NC architecture best fits into your
network and applications environment.
But if you’re a power user, your trusty PC
will still serve you best — for now. □
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 157
LOOKING FORWARD
IRF
HOME COMPUTERS
The "information furnace"
will power computing in
every room-and beyond.
By BMI Howard
In 15 years, home
PCs will be just like
peanuts: You won’t
be able to stop with
just one. And
speaking of food: In
10 to 15 years, your refrigerator may in fact
have a flat-panel display built into the door.
Here's what’s likely for PCs in 2012:
There will still be a desktop-style PC
somewhere in the house — maybe several
of them. But there’ll be a wide variety of
other devices able to function as PCs.
The big television set in the living
room or den will serve as a computer dis-
play, and vice versa. Right next to your
main TV will be a PC that can function as
a controller for all your home stereo and
home theater components. In addition,
you’ll have a VCR that you’ll actually
know how to program — no more blinking
12 : 00 . . . 12 : 00 . . . 12 : 00 . . . .
In upscale homes, a PC will be present
in every bedroom. Somewhere, possibly
tucked away in the basement or where the
phone lines come in, there will be a bullet-
proof, high-reliability PC that will be the
brains of the house. It will control
the burglar alarm, the phones, the
heating and air conditioning, the
lighting, and the sprinklers. It may
also act as a central file server for
other household PCs, provided
that this doesn’t degrade the relia-
bility of its core security functions.
Some wags call it the “information
158 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
INSIN
AmnUBSACEPAD
■Ml rata-
CONIMUBKOME
Dwaai
PAHAS0MC1
wart
furnace,” a play on “information appli-
ance,” because it’s likely to reside in the
basement.
There will be a network connecting all
the PCs and computer devices in the house.
In new houses, it will consist of network
cable (essentially high-grade phone wire),
because laying the cable is relatively cheap
while the house is being framed. But in
most existing houses, it will consist of either
radio-frequency wireless or wiring already
in the house, most likely the AC lines but
possibly the cable for your cable TV.
Rewiring a house costs thousands of dol-
lars, and that won’t get cheaper over time.
TYPES OF PO IN THE HOMI
As we noted, there will be several types of
PCs in the home, all tailored to different
uses. Most will be smaller and more com-
pact than today’s PCs, with fewer wires
connecting the pieces. It’s likely that flat-
panel technology will be competitive in
quality as well as price with CRT technol-
ogy: The display will be unobtrusive.
(You really could hang it on the wall,
embed it in a desktop, or seal it in the re-
frigerator door.) The PC itself won’t be
much bigger than today’s notebook PCs
and might be even more compact — so
compact that it could be integrated into
either the display or the keyboard.
The TV display will likely have an elon-
gated ratio of 16 inches wide to 9 inches
high — close to that of wide-screen
films — rather than the 4:3 ratio (equiva-
lent to 16:12) of today’s TV and
computer screens.
The big-screen PC/TV — k la
today’s Gateway 2000 Destina-
tion — will encourage collaborative
computing in the family: Mom will
use it to help J unior with his home-
work, and there will be more mul-
tiplayer games, much like today’s
You Don't Know Jack. But this won't be
the PC you'll use to balance your check-
book (at least not if you have nosy neigh-
bors and might forget to draw the blinds).
There will still be a desktop PC that
The Home
Of the
Future
As PCs become more affordable,
there will be one in every room of
the house. What will you do with all
of them? Here are just a few ideas; In
the living room, you can use the PC
to categorize all of your CDs and
movies, or you can lock out unsuit-
able TV programs. The home control-
center monitor in the kitchen will
keep an eye on your vacation home
and regulate the temperature, lights,
and security system of your current
residence. The PC in the bedroom
will store all of your photos digitally.
All these systems will be networked
via the "information furnace," a
server kept out of sight somewhere,
probably in the basement.
Copyrighted mate- .31
LOOKING FORWARD
may look a lot like a nolebook PC. All the
internal components will be downsized.
To expand, you may add an external
wedge, or “slice." to the unit. Of course,
manufacturers will long since have re-
solved configuration hassles.
There will be a kitchen PC that rolls
into one box all the functions now on one
kitchen counter in many homes: phone,
answering machine, security-alarm panel.
9-inch TV. It will likely also be a real PC.
assuming that a rock-.steady operating
system is running it. Nice as Windows 9.S
is today, you wouldn't completely trust it
to run the burglar alarm, would you?
I'he telephone (unquestionably cord-
less) may be a U’iephtme/PC/orgtmizer in
its own right. Lift the handset from the wall
and it's a wireless phone. Walk dow n the
block with it and the phone switches to the
cellular network, but airtime will cost pen-
nies a minute, not the I'O cents or a dollar
you pay now. This handset may also con-
trol lights around the house and some func-
tions of your kitchen PC burglar alarm. It
might have a bar code scanner built-in to
let you take a household inventory or even
create a shopping list.
There almost certainly will be car PCs.
Right now. high-end cars have more than
two dozen microprocessors, and last year
Intel announced an initiative for a car com-
puter. The device will perform door-to-
dixrr routing ( a feature already available in
Acuras. BMWs, and Oldsmobiles. but for
$2.(XX) to S.l.tXX)) to help you find a hotel or
your favorite restaurant chain while en
route. If you're in an accident, it will call for
help automatically. The problem today is
that the handful of in-car guidance and se-
curity systems are walled off from comput-
ers not in the car. They don't link up to
your home computer. By 2012 they will.
FUTURE ASSUMPTIONS
There are also a number of technologies
that will progress in one of a handful of
ways, but we don't know for sure which
route they will take. For example:
• Internet link provider. Who will provide
high-speed access to the outside world?
A. Satellite service
B. DSL voice/data connect
C. Home control center
to monitor security,
lights. HVAC
D. Information furnace
O. Wide-screen PC/TV
H. Security camera
J. Remote control for
both TV and computer
:: tal
M/\RC H 25. IW7 PC MAGAZINE 159
LOOKING FORWARD
Will it be the phone company (now con-
sidered arrogant but technically savvy by
many), the cable company (now consid-
ered arrogant, period), the satellite ser-
vice provider, or some dark-horse compa-
ny, such as the electric company? (Don’t
laugh — it already owns the utility poles
and could very easily string a data line on
those poles.)
• Local storage. Whether mass storage re-
mains local (son of son of DVD-RAM) or
is delivered on demand from an informa-
tion server is anyone’s guess. We may go
from no CD-ROM drives to fast CDs to
rewritable CDs and DVDs, back to no
CDs or DVDs at all.
• Flat-panel technology. Today LCDs are dom-
inant, but it appears that gas-plasma tech-
nology has more promise for displays big-
ger than 20 inches diagonally. In 2012, who
knows? CRT technology may still be with
us, too, but if this method is to survive, the
tubes will have to get shorter. Today a PC
monitor is roughly 1 inch deep for every
inch of screen diagonal (TVs have slightly
less relative depth), so a 17-inch display is
17 inches deep, plus or minus an inch.
• Alternative input devices. The keyboard and
mouse will likely stick with us. Touch
screens may gain popularity, especially in
PCs in the kitchen, where people of all ages
will be interacting with the unit. We'll prob-
ably have enough computing horsepower
for real, continuous speech recognition,
too. You might even cany a handheld PDA
that performs on-the-fly translation when
you’re traveling internationally.
SO WHAT CAN I 0O IN ion?
Hardware is cool to techno-weenies, but
most people want to know what useful
tasks they can actually do with it. Odds
are, you'll still be typing documents and
entering numbers in spreadsheets. Con-
sider the following possibilities. Some are
only a few years away.
In the living room or entertainment
room, your PC will categorize all your CDs
and DVD movies, if they're actually physi-
cal objects you keep in your house. (Maybe
there will be so much bandwidth you'll be
able to order up any song or movie on de-
mand. We'll see.) You’ll be able to pro-
gram your 500-disk CD/DVD changer to
play children’s music in the morning, then
jazz for the next 2 hours. (Each disk will be
encoded with likely categories, or you’ll be
able to choose your own.) You’ll be able to
lock out TV shows you don't want your
kids to see, and the system will be much
more sophisticated than the TV industry’s
labels for three or four age levels. You’ll
subscribe to one of hundreds of ratings ser-
vices — you’ll pick the one you feel most
typifies your family’s tastes — and it will rate
all the shows. This is an example of how
technology can be more useful if it’s in the
hands of private groups than if the govern-
ment controls it. Of course, you won't have
to use any ratings service.
Home automation will be a hot item;
lights, security system, sprinklers, heating,
and air conditioning. You’ll even know if
you've left the garage door open. All this
is possible right now in high-end “homes
of the future,” but it costs $100,000 to im-
The PC 15 years hence
will let you work more
quickly. How you use the
found time is up to you.
plement. We're talking about something
that would cost only a few dollars for each
sensor. Since every PC will also be a TV,
you could put a TV camera at the front
door to watch for the delivery man or
screen visitors. Another camera could go
in the backyard to keep an eye on the kids.
If you have a vacation house, you’ll be
able to monitor it remotely for break-ins
or furnace failure. Again, that technology
exists now, but it will become affordable
and available to anyone who has a PC.
You’ll have enough cheap storage to
digitize all your still photos and store them
locally or in some huge information ware-
house. Video camera technology will
switch from analog to digital recording (a
few cameras already are digital, but they’re
$2.5(X)-plus). And you’ll be able to capture
movies to your PC’s hard disk and edit
them just as TV news shows do now. This
will happen far sooner than 2012. By then,
virtually all still cameras will be digital.
Most every PC will have a videoconfer-
encing camera. Use it on the day you’re
working at home to dial in to your work-
group’s daily meeting. Use it at night or on
the weekends for talking to relatives and
to children away at college. Already
there’s a surge of PC purchases by the
middle-class and affluent elderly, all of
whom have the same lament: “My kids
never write and they hardly ever call. But
they answer e-mail. And with video cam-
eras, 1 can see what the grandchildren look
like.” Who knows, maybe there will even
be an on-the-fly retouching feature that
will give you a "shave” and paint a button-
down shirt and tie onto your sleepy frame,
actually still sporting ratty pajamas and
yesterday’s beard. What sounds like a joke
today could be commonplace in 2012.
As America ages, you can expect more
medical-information databases and self-
diagnosis programs. With that video cam-
era (much higher-resolution than today’s),
your doctor might even check out that skin
rash remotely: Allergy? Poison ivy?
Today, education motivates many PC
purchases. Similarly, tomorrow we’re like-
ly to see customized edutainment programs
for tutoring children in areas where they
need more help. The tutoring may well take
place via an online service. It could even be
one-on-one with a remote tutor, or one-on-
five (with each child seeing only the tutor
and the tutor seeing each child).
There will also be big sociological impli-
cations. In the 1930s, the government de-
creed that everyone deserved access to tele-
phone serviee, and reeently there was
similar discussion about PCs. Nothing
much came of it, because it’s one thing to
subsidize a $50 phone and $1 0-a-month ser-
vice; it’s another to fork over $2,500 per PC.
But as priees drop below $1,000 for the
basic PC, and below $500 for devices whose
intelligence resides more at the far end of a
phone or network cable, perhaps we will
wind up providing universal PC access.
Much of the stigma surrounding work-
ing at home has gone away, and that shift
can only continue. As computing devices
and peripherals get smaller, more people
will be able to work comfortably out of
their homes without allocating separate
rooms or having their equipment take
over the living room of a small apartment.
One thing won’t change: In 2012, there
will still be only 24 hours in the day, and
you’ll need to sleep for about 8 of them.
The PC 15 years hence will let you per-
form tasks quiekly and more intelligently.
How you use the found time is up to you.
160 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING HOME COMPUTERS
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Increasing convergence of technologies and growing access to high-speed networks is
leading to a parade of new computing devices. By Cade Metz
D on’t look back, Martha Stewart: The
PC may be gaining on you. After
years inside an off-white plastic case
next to the family file cabinet. PC technol-
ogy is gradually moving into the kitchen,
the living room, and ordinary domestic life.
While an antiquated
Intel processor is
likely running your
microwave oven,
leading-edge com-
puter designs are on
the verge of trans-
forming your house-
hold appliances and
easing your every-
day existence.
Even now a
home PC such as the
Toshiba Infinia 7200
can integrate your fax
machine, answering machine,
telephone, radio, stereo sys
tern, and television into a sin-
gle unit (“Home PCs: High
Style. High Speed.” Decem-
ber 17, 1996). The general
public isn’t watching “ER"
every Thursday night on the
Infinia’s 17-inch screen — much less the 31-
inch display of the Gateway 2000 Destina-
tion — but the domestication of the PC is
only beginning. Computer technology may
soon be as prevalent in the home as run-
ning water and electric light.
DIBA’S INPORMA'nON AmiANCU
Farzad Dibachi (a former senior vice pres-
ident at Oracle) and Farid Dibachi (former
CEO and founder of Wavetron Microsys-
tems) recently founded Diba Corp, in an
effort to bring PC technology to the mass-
es. This Menlo Park, California, start-up is
currently developing a series of Information
Appliances — devices that blend the potency
of a PC with the simplicity of a toaster or a
blender. Though these self-sufficient units
contain their own processors, memory, and
integrated software, they’ll be as afford-
162 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25 . 1997
With Panasonic's
Internet phone, you
can send e-mail,
cruise the Web, or
simply call your
home.
able and accessible as common household
appliances.
The first of these devices — a telephone
that provides basic Internet access — grew
from Diba’s partnership with Panasonic.
This modest unit — which is still without a
name — has an ordinary phone receiver,
cradle, and keypad, but it is also
equipped with an LCD for send-
ing and receiving e-
mail or perusing text
from the World
Wide Web. Buttons
offering typical e-
mail controls
(send, reply, for-
ward, delete) re-
side just beneath the
display, as does a set of
direclional keys that let you
navigate through a message or
browse a Web page. A standard-
size keyboard plugs into the rear of the
unit, while a standard phone line
connects you to the Internet.
Some units will come preconfig-
ured for a particular ISP (Internet
service provider): you can also
choose your own. The phone won’t
require an external modem, ad-
ditional software installation, or
convoluted configuration pro-
cedures. After plugging the
unit into an electric outlet and
a phone jack, you’ll have a
traditional telephone with
traditional telephone func-
tions (Caller ID, redial,
and so forth) as well as an
e-mail interface. A pro-
totype of this product ■ 7
debuted at Fall
Comdex, and it
should be available
by the end of 1997.
Diba is also devel-
oping a PC that attach-
es to the bottom of a
kitchen cabinet and
Brother's
Kitchen Assistant
stores all of your favorite recipes and
will even print a shopping list for you.
serves as an automated cookbook. With a
built-in CD-ROM drive. Diba KKchcii — as
the unit’s prototype is known — conve-
niently stores recipes, menus, nutritional
information, and calorie counts.
Though Diba’s device is still weeks
away from reaching the market. Brother
International Corp. of Somerset, New Jer-
sey, has already shipped a product — the
KHchcn Assistant — that fills virtually the same
niche. Brother’s Kitchen Assistant ($350
street), a digital database of recipes, is
slightly larger than a sugar canister (6 by 6
by 8.5 inches) and weighs but 2 pounds.
That 2 pounds includes an external key-
board and an integrated thermal printer,
which allow you to input personal recipes
or print shopping lists. The unit ships with
75 preloaded recipes and has two expan-
sion slots for supplementary cookbook
cartridges.
Using six function keys and a classic
LCD, you can select a recipe by category
(appetizer, entree, dessert) or primary in-
gredient. then peruse it, print it out, and
check its nutritional makeup if it’s a pre-
programmed recipe. The unit also pro-
vides five separate timers, a menu plan-
ner, a glossary, and a “reverse recipe”
feature (a means of locating dishes that
use only available ingredients).
Brother’s Kitchen Assistant runs on AC
power or AA alkaline batteries and uses a
2.25-inch roll of paper. Brother sells addi-
tional paper rolls (three for $14.95), addi-
tional memory ($39.95 per 128,000-charac-
ter card), and an eclectic selection of recipe
cartridges ($29.95 each). Never again will
you lose your favorite recipe or
render it unintelligi-
ble by spilling the
chicken mole on it.
The final mem-
ber of Diba’s Infor-
mation Appliance
triumvirate is a vari-
• ant of the oft-
discussed Inter-
net TV. After en-
|t i'~ tering partner-
ships with both
Samsung Electron-
ics Co. and Zenith Elec-
tronics Corp., Diba will de-
liver a series of television
units that furnish Web
browsing and e-mail access.
Copyrighted material
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LOOKING FORWARD
The initial Samsung offering is
27-inch Internet TV that uses an on
screen keyboard, a push-button re-
mote control, and an integrated
33.6-Kbps modem. Units are al-
ready shipping in Korea and will
arrive in the United States in the
second half of this year. The
Zenith unit — called NetVision —
will ship with a trackball re-
mote control, a built-in
modem, and an Ethernet port
for use with forthcoming
cable modems. By the time
you read this, the latter de-
sign should be selling in re-
tail outlets. Wireless key-
boards will be optional. Apple's MessagePad rccognix*s both
print and cursive character input.
IWAMTMVWUTV
In a separate venture, Mitsubishi Con-
sumer Electronics America has teamed
with ViewCall America to develop and sell
a similar product — the DiamondWeb TV.
Due for release this summer, this Internet
TV uses ViewCall’s On-TV service and
technology from Microware, Motorola,
and Spyglass to provide e-mail, Web
browsing, Java support, TV-based HTML
extensions, and bookmarks, as well as
parental control features.
Of course, several vendors are ship-
ping units that offer Internet access by
connecting to extant televisions. Nascent
products from Philips Consumer Elec-
tronics and Sony Electronics use technol-
ogy from WebTV Networks, a start-up
company based in Palo Alto, California.
The $329 Philips Magnavox WebTV and the
$349 Sony WebTV Internet Terminal will im-
mediately connect you to the Internet
using a standard television and a standard
phone jack: Just dial WebTV’s toll-free
number via a button on your remote con-
trol, enter your credit card number, and
choose a local access point. A $19.95
monthly access fee gives you Web brows-
ing and five separate e-mail accounts.
With each of these WebTV products, a
simple front end links you to an e-mail in-
terface, a predefined bookmark list, a
search engine, and several celebrated
Web sites (CNN and MTV, among oth-
ers). The devices themselves contain 33.6-
Kbps modems and connect easily to stan-
dard PC keyboards. You can also use the
on-screen virtual keyboards, but wireless
keyboards are available
from both vendors ($79
for the Sony keyboard,
$69.95 for the Philips
/ keyboard).
Moreover, Sega of
America — that giant of
the consumer gaming
world — is now offering the
Sega Saturn Net Link,
a $199.99 unit
that
integrates
a 28.8-Kbps
modem and
proprietary Web
software. When cou-
pled with the Sega Saturn
gaming system (also
$199.99), this access tool
provides e-mail, Web browsing, chat-room
access, and network game playing. Its
browser is HTML 2.0-compliant and uses
an on-screen or standard keyboard. Sega
offers one month of free Internet access
and charges $19.95 per month thereafter.
Even the Rolodex and the yellow legal pad
are giving way to PC devices. For years,
PIM (personal information manager) soft-
ware, such as Lotus Organizer or Mi-
crosoft Scheduler-, has equipped PC users
with digital cal- _
endars, contact data-
bases, daily planners,
and to-do lists. Subse-
quently, PDAs
(personal digital
assistants) have
offered similar
applications from
portable, palm-
size hardware.
U.S. Robotics’
Pilot SOOO, a final-
ist in our 1996
Technical Excel-
lence Awards
(PC Magazine. December 17. 1996), is a
5.5-ounce unit that’s about the size of a box
of playing cards (0.6 by 4.6 by 3. 1 inches).
This diminutive device has succeeded
where other such machines have failed,
because it doesn't promise more than it
can deliver. And those functions that it
does tout, it performs extremely well. It
Web sans PC The Sega Saturn Net Link, Sony WebTV
Internet Terminal, and Philips Magnavox WebTV,
offers the four typical PIM applications (a
date book, an address book, a to-do list,
and a memo pad) while adding a calcula-
tor and several security features. With the
unit’s stylus pen. you can input data via an
on-screen keyboard or an on-screen writ-
ing pad. The latter responds only to a set
of predefined symbols (called Graffiti al-
phabet), but most of those symbols mirror
everyday alphanumeric characters.
The Pilot also ships with a simple
docking cradle that connects to your PC’s
serial port. Using the Pilot Desktop soft-
ware or any popular PIM application (Or-
ganizer, Schedule-F, or Starfish Software’s
Sidekick, among others), you can input
data onto your PC and then automatical-
ly move it to your Pilot; a button on the
docking cradle promptly synchronizes the
data on each machine.
This simple yet powerful PDA is avail-
able in two different versions: The $249
Pilot 1000 stores up to 500 addresses, a
year of appointments, 100 to-do items, and
50 memos, while the $299 Pilot 5000 han-
dles roughly five times as much data. Each
can run for several months on a pair of AA
batteries. A 1 MB memory upgrade (about
15,000 records) is an additional $99, while
a modem cable is $19.95.
Apple Computer is advancing the PDA
genre a step farther with its upcoming Me$-
sagePad 2000, a hand-held device that inte-
grates a word processor, a
spreadsheet, and Internet
software as well as stan-
dard PIM applications.
The MessagePad,
roughly the size of a
videocassette (1.1 by 4.7
by 8.3 inches) and
weighing less than 1.5
pounds, is designed
around Apple’s New-
ton 2.1 operating sys-
tem. You can input
data simply by writing
on the unit’s display
with a stylus; it recog-
nizes both print and cursive characters.
The unit also has four on-screen key-
boards (typewriter, numeric, phone, and
time/date); an optional external keyboard
(90 percent of full size) is also available.
Apple’s Newton Connection Utilities
can transfer MessagePad data to and from
a standard PC or Macintosh over a serial
164 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted maierial
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New Microsoft Team Manager 97
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Missing Status Reports
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Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
cable; it supports most popular desktop
PIM software, including Claris Organizer,
Lotus Organizer, and Microsoft Sched-
ule+. Newton 2.1 also supports low-level
sound recording, enabling you to add voice
notes to visual notes. With the built-in mi-
crophone and speaker,
you can store and play
back anything from
personal reminders to
entire conversations.
The unit’s two PC
Card slots support
memory cartridges,
additional applica-
tions, and a variety of
modems. With the lat-
ter, you can send and re-
ceive faxes, use e-mail,
and access the Internet
via the MessagePad's
integrated Web browser. A serial port, a
parallel port, and an infrared interface
collectively let you connect to a variety of
PC- and Mac-based peripherals.
The MessagePad is backed by a 160-
MHz StrongARM RISC processor. SMB
of ROM, SMB of RAM, and a 480-by-320
backlit screen that supports 16 levels of
gray and 100 dots per inch. This remark-
able unit can last for three to six weeks on
either AA alkaline or optional nickel hy-
dride batteries, but it also runs on AC
power. By the time you read this, Apple
should be selling the MessagePad 2000 for
just under $1,000.
The future of the PDA may lie with Mi-
crosoft’s Windows CE, however. Once
code-named Pegasus, this 32-bit, graphical
operating system for palmtop systems was
introduced in January and has already
shipped with several new PDAs (First
Looks, “Pocket Windows,” PC Magazine,
January 21, 1997, page 45). It offers the fa-
miliar Windows 95 interface and simpli-
fied versions of familiar Windows 95 ap-
plications. including Pocket Excel, Pocket
Word, and Internet Explorer 2.0. Palm-
tops using the OS offer multitasking and
an instant-on feature that eliminates the
usual PC boot-up process.
This summer, Hewlett-Packard Co., a
longtime palmtop market leader with its
HP 200LX, will enter the Windows CE
market. The HP iOOLX Palmtop PC, equipped
with 2MB of RAM. and the HP 310LX Palmtop
PC, with 4MB, each have a Type II PC Card
slot and a flash memory card slot.
The beauty of HP’s design compared
with existing Windows CE machines is its
display. While current Windows CE de-
vices offer 60 columns and 480-by-240 res-
olution, HP’s gray-scale dis-
play. which is backlit on the
320LX, supports 80
columns and 640-by-240
resolution.
Two AA batteries
are enough to deliv-
er four weeks of
power, while an in-
tegrated keyboard
mirrors that of a
standard PC. Be-
cause the display is
touch-sensitive,
no mouse or
pointing device is
required: a stylus inside the machine pops
out easily when needed.
With the included docking cradle, you
can synchronize your Windows CE appli-
cations with their Windows 95 and Win-
dows NT desktop counterparts. The unit
also offers an infrared transceiver, a serial
port, an integrated speaker, and an AC
adapter: it’s expected to sell for about $500.
IBM’S HOMS MMCTOR
The culmination of PC-based domestic
technology rests with IBM Consumer Di-
vision’s seminal Home Director paradigm.
First introduced in May of last year.
Home Director is a hardware and soft-
ware scheme that works in tandem with
an IBM Aptiva PC to automate your elec-
tric lights and appliances.
IBM is now developing a
voice-enabled version of
Home Director that will turn
on your coffee maker or
light up your attic by mere
suggestion. Esscntialh.
this new system — Ver-
sion 3.0 — uses the
same setup as the orig-
inal product. A Home'
Director Serial Inter-
face connects your
PC serial port to a
standard wall outlet.
Via your existing
electrical wiring, this
device is then able to
communicate with various modules
around your home. Each module is
plugged into an outlet, connected to an
appliance or lighting fixture, and assigned
a particular code. Using such codes, your
PC can control the attached devices re-
motely.
When you launch the Home Direc-
tor software on your PC, it loads an
IBM VoiceType Connection Speech-
bar that either integrates with the
Home Director software or floats
freely in its own window. After you’ve
given the simple verbal order “wake
up,” the Speechbar will respond to in-
numerable point-and-click or Home
Director-specific commands. You can
create graphical representations of
each module, schedule events to occur
at any time during the day, and pro-
gram multiple-event routines. Version
3.0 also supports radio-frequency and
infrared remote control and telephone
operation.
The Home Director Starter Kit ships
only with and works only with IBM Apti-
va PCs (“Home PCs: High Style, High
Speed,” PC Magazine, December 17,
1996). The voice-activated Version 3.0
should be available by spring 1997.
Luddites, beware: Every aspect of
your domestic life could soon be depen-
dent on the PC. The home computer is no
longer an abstruse machine with an in-
sipid countenance. It’s a colorful piece of
art deco for the living room, a modern
cookbook, a variation on the infamous
idiot box. a personal secretary, and a Big
Brother for the family abode. All we need
now is a PC that does the dishes. □
'Th* HP }00U Palmtop PC takes Windows CE a
step further with its expanded display.
MARCH 25. 1 W PC MAGAZINE 167
LOOKING FORWARD
FUTI
MICROPROCESSORS
Cost, not technology, will
be the greatest barrier to
future chip developments.
By Laura Peters
In 15 years, micro-
processors will be
racing at gigahertz
speeds, cashing in
millions of transis-
tors on a chip the
size of your thumbnail. On it will be a mile
or so of stacked wiring laid with molecular
precision. The main challenge going for-
ward will be to maximize the speed of the
interconnect — a dilemma with which PC
vendors also grapple today, since on-chip
speeds are roughly five times as fast as
chip-to-board speeds. Signal propagation
delays across multiple metal layers will also
be highly problematic for chip designers.
In the future, more powerful chips will
enable an abundance of PC applications,
limited only by our imaginations. Al-
ready, microprocessors allow such func-
tions as handwriting recognition and lan-
guage translation. Still, there are obstacles
to advancing chips. If technologies aren’t
the barrier, then what is?
COST SAMUERS
One obstacle to advancing microprocessor
technology is the cost of building a semi-
conductor-manufacturing facility (or fab),
now over $1 billion. There are about 1,000
fabs today; the hundred or so that will be
built before 2012 will be even more costly.
Yet such costs are nothing compared with
the price of bringing chips to market: Intel's
first Pentium chip, for example, cost over
$5 billion to develop. Developing the chips
168 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. I W
of 2012, be they of RISC or CISC architec-
ture, may cost something like $10 billion.
In fact. Intel's Gordon Moore has
identified the expense of chip making as
a limiting factor, Moore should know,
since he first noted, in 1965, the strategy
of scaling down transistor size to create
smaller, faster, more functional chips
cost-effectively (in a trend known since as
Moore’s Law). Hence, faster, smaller
computers come out every year.
Visionaries could argue that there is no
real barrier to chip development and that
Ncxt-century procAssors may usa a billion tran-
sistors: today's MMX Pantium has but 4.5 million.
if we use technology properly, it will en-
able much more than improved produc-
tivity. Perhaps we can push the window
open further to realize any number of ad-
vances. Can tomorrow’s technology be
embraced to allow for greater advances in
areas such as education and cultural ap-
preciation? Stranger things have hap-
pened — even in the electronics industry.
TMl MUCON ARCHmCTS
Trying to speed processing by minimizing
signal propagation delay, designers have
effectively stacked metal lines of increas-
ing length. Whereas chips in the late
eighties used only one metal layer, today's
state-of-the-art chips have four or five.
Though this stack will rapidly progress
to eight or more layers, eventually the
metal's capacity to handle the signal will
reach its limit, and new methods will be
necessary. The lines will likely consist of
copper instead of aluminum, because it is
a better electrical conductor. And instead
of the isolating silicon-dioxide film to sep-
arate the lines, fluorinated oxides will be
deposited or spun on the wafer.
This magical combination of materials
will reduce the wire’s resistance/capaci-
tance time constant. By minimizing the
metal's resistance and lowering the isolat-
ing film’s dielectric constant, chip designers
will enable faster signals. Here is where the
choice of technologies becomes crucial.
KEY ADVANCES IN PROCESS TECHN0L06IES
In the semiconductor industry, cost con-
cerns and technology go hand in hand.
There are a handful of process technologies
used to make chips today; wafer-processing
steps monopolize the devices’ overall cost.
At the wafer level, processes currently used
include lithography, ion implantation, dif-
fusion and oxidation, deposition, etching,
cleaning, planarization, and metrology.
Chip manufacturers begin the wafer
process by purchasing the silicon wafers in
sizes of l(X), 125, 150, and 200 millimeters.
Pizza-size wafers (300 mm, or 12 inches) are
expected to enter production after 1998.
Development of 400-mm (16-inch) wafers
may also be under way, to a small extent.
Lithography drives this market: It is the
imaging technique that precisely patterns
each circuit element, and it also requires
the fab’s most expensive toolset. In this
process, optical wafer steppers use preci-
sion optics to focus a light wavelength of
365 nanometers (soon to be 248 and even-
Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
1.000.000
100,000
2 10.000
1.000
The Evolution of the Microprocessor
In 1965. when Intel cofounder
Gordon Moore predicted that
microprocessor transistor density
would double every two years (a
statement known since as Moores
Law), no one could imagine
exactly how accurate his
prognostication would prove to
be. Whats perhaps more
astounding is that if micro-
processors continue to follow this
trer>d~and we have little doubt
that they will— computers
powered by multiple-gigahertz
CPUs will be commonplace in the
next century.
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tually lo be 193 nanometers) onto the
wafer, which is coated with a light-sensitive
film, photoresist. (The development of
shorter wavelengths is heightening de-
mands on manufacturers of steppers,
quartz, and other materials.) Either tvdimg
or ion implantation comes next. Selective
etching of the exposed films creates the
trenches that will later be filled with metal.
Ion implantation, a completely different
prt>cess. lets engineers precisely modify the
chip’s electrical characteristics by acceler-
ating charged atoms (ions) in an electrical
field into the silicon surface.
Diffusion and oxidation lake place in
12-foot vertical tube reactors holding
hundreds of wafers. Technology is de-
manding a shift lo fast-ramp fur-
naces. but the current method has
essentially been mastered and is
cost-effective.
Deposition of films also takes
place in reactors but with one
wafer at a time, a difference that
slows down the fab prcxress signifi-
cantly. Without our enormous advances in
computer technology and software, the fab
would be a logistics nightmare; ironically, it
depends on the very technology it enables.
Etching reactors are also single-wafer
systems, selectively removing films of alu-
minum, tungsten, silicon, polysilicon, sili-
con dioxide, and photoresist, as well as a
myriad of residues. Cleaning occurs hun-
dreds of times per wafer: astoundingly, a
typical fab uses an estimated 50 acre-feel
of water daily, or an area the size of 15
football fields with a depth of 1 fool. This
issue is usually a logistics challenge, and it
can be an economic hardship in countries
without access lo cheap water. This process
also uses enormous amounts of electricity.
Manufacturers can accomplish
planarization (the production of
flat hims) using a wet chemical and
a mechanical polishing tool modi-
fied from prime silicon polishers.
This method is only now nearing
widespread acceptance in the
semiconductor industry, because
of issues of film uniformity, equipment re-
liability. and competing technologies.
Finally, there is metrology. Simply put:
If you can't measure a 0.1 -micron line,
you don't know whether you have a 0.1-
micron line. Metrology checkpoints in the
fab line go a long way toward ensuring
precision. But with these tools' costs ri-
valing those of the wafer steppers, you
might prefer a smart system to a techni-
cian peering into a fancy microscope.
CONCLUSIONS
Current technologies* limits and the laws of
physics will not prevent the world's best en-
gineers from creating astounding chips 15
years from now. The cost issue is mind-bog-
gling. but it may not be a real barrier. When
we see 2012‘s microprocessors, with their
hundreds of millions of transistors, a new
age will be upon us. We won't call it “the
digital age” or “the information age.” as
both will be dead terms. But regardless of
the language or the time, we’ll still be ask-
ing, “What are the barriers?”
INSIDE
MOSK6
aiuxsM]
INTU'S KLAMATH AND
BEYOND
WHAT ABOUT RISC?
la)
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 169
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING MICROPROCESSORS
RENEWED COMPETITION
AMD and Cyrix are muscling their way into the market as Intel rushes to push the tech-
nology into the next generation. By Cade Metz
^ INTEL
Deschutes^
W hen charting the near future of the
microprocessor, second-sourcing
and North American geography are
as relevant as cache size and clock speed.
The perennial also-rans of the
microprocessor market, AMD and
Cyrix, are on the verge of competing with
Intel’s premium chip designs, while Intel I
is hoping to further its market dominance
with a series of processors code-named for
(of ail things) Pacific-coast rivers.
Such an esoteric naming convention is
indicative of chip evolution on the whole.
For years, Intel used a simple, incremental
method to name its CPUs (286, 386, 486,
P5, P6, and so on), which it introduced into
a simple, incremental
market. Today, the
market has nei-
ther characteris-
tic. Not only are
manufacturers of-
fering new instruc-
tion sets and new
motherboards, but
for the first time, the
market’s high end
will include three
chip vendors.
At the moment,
Intel's Pentium Pro-
cessor with MMX
Technology is the
foremost option in
the home markets, while the Pentium Pro
dominates the high end of the x86 space.
Both have shortcomings, however. The
MMX Pentium uses Intel’s MMX technol-
ogy (a set of 57 new instructions for enrich-
ing PC multimedia), but it is not optimized
for a 32-bit OS such as Windows NT. The
Pentium Pro offers 32-bit optimization but
lacks MMX. The best of both worlds is
imminent — from Intel and its competitors.
AMDCOMUOTAOI
AMD hopes to contest Intel’s high-end
dominance with the K6, an MMX CPU
that will likely debut in mid- April at speeds
170 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
INTEL
Klamath
X
SP€FD
180, 200, 2ii MHz
PHOfECtEDHELEASi
April 1997
Thu chip begin life ii
NeiGen'iNi6«6.AM0
renamed it after purchasing
NesGen m the fourth quarter
of 1995. It offers MMX
technology. optimiza-
twL and 64K of primary
cache. Mamcompetition:
Cyril M2. Intel Klamath, Intel
Pentium Pro.
SPEED j
233, 266 MHz |
PnOtEaEO RELEASE I
First half of 1997 |
The fint P6 pr«es$oi with i
MMX the Klamath will offer
)2K of primary cKheandno
on-board secondary cache.
The CPU wilt ship on an easily
optimized dau^ercard called
an SEC (singletdgt contact)
ca/tndge. Main competition;
AM0K6.Cyr»MI
as high as 233 MHz. When AMD unveiled
a 200-MHz K6 prototype at Fall Comdex,
the chip outperformed a comparable Pen-
tium Pro under Windows
NT and signaled a
_ resurgence for the
struggling AMD.
Since its 8088
clone debuted over
15 years ago, AMD
has consistently de-
livered less expen-
sive chips than
Intel’s mainstream
offerings. AMD con-
ceived its Pentium
competitor, the K5,
as a high-end chip,
hut a cache defect set
the K5 back several
months and resulted in significant financial
losses. The K6 now fills the role of AMD's
silicon savior.
The K6 began its life as the Nx686, but
AMD rechristened it after purchasing it
and its parent company, NexGen, last
winter. (AMD did have its own sixth-gen-
eration chip in the works, but the compa-
ny scrapped that design in favor of Nex-
Gen’s.) Manufactured on a 0.35p
process, the K6 is a 16-mm- device that
plugs into a Pentium socket. Different
versions will run at clock speeds of 180.
200, and 233 MHz,
Later this year, a die shrink to 0.25|j
should produce a 300-MHz incarnation.
The chip also features 32-bit optimiza-
tion, an implementation of MMX tech-
nology, and 64K of LI cache (which min-
imizes time-intensive calls to the L2
cache or main memory).
Whereas past AMDthips were merely
clones of Intel designs, in-house engineers
built the K5 and the K6 from scratch. The
company can use the original Jt86 instruc-
tion set free of charge under a patent cross-
licensing agreement. With MMX. the
agreement give AMD the right to see and
use Intel's MMX technology to develop
SPEED
300, 333 MHz
PROJECTED RELEASE
First half of 1998
The Deschutet will become
Intel 's first mobite P6. thanks to
its low voltage. It is expected to
displace Klamath toa large
degree in the desktop market.
Mam compeMtiort AMD K6,
Cyrix MI
compatible products. But
because K6's circuit-
ry is different
from the Pen-
tium’s, AMD must
implement its own
version of MMX in
its CPUs. AMD
must also pay Intel a
royalty for every
MMX-compatible
processor sold. With
MMX and 32-bit op-
timization in place,
the K6 should be-
come the first AMD
product to challenge high-end Intel chips.
CYMX: THI NIXT eiNlMATION
Cyrix has similar expectations for its M2
chip, which it will also introduce in the sec-
ond quarter of this year. About a year ago,
the company introduced its first 6x86 de-
sign — a 133-MHz chip that outperformed
the Pentium/166. A 150-MHz version sub-
sequently reached the Pentium/200 level
and proved a legitimate high-end option for
Windows 95 users. Yet the 6x86’s success in
the lab did not translate to success in the
marketplace. Though Cyrix won the indus-
try press's support and even established its
own line of PCs to promote the 6x86 name,
it sold relatively few chips.
With the M2, Cyrix hopes to compete
with the MMX Pentium. Like the K6, this
6x86 derivative has a Pen-
tium pinout, an MMX
instruction set,
and 64K of LI
e. It’s manufac-
tured on a 0.35p
process and is, at
roughly 200 mm\
slightly larger than
the current Pentium
Pro die (196 mm’).
(The cost to manu-
facture a chip is re-
lated to its area:
l.arger chips mean
fewer chips per wafer.)
At its debut, the M2 will be available in
180- and 200-MHz versions, and it should
soon graduate to 225 MHz. That version
will use a 75-MHz bus, which will give it an
obvious bandwidth advantage over the
MMX Pentium. Like the MMX Pentium
Katniai
" ^
Sf^EO
Unknown
PROJECTED RELEASE
Mid-1998
Katmai will offer tn
extended veruon of MMX
called A4MXII
lOO-MHiiyitembus.
and a larger
primary cache.
ana
||» cache.]
"iitdd maierial
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M The Super>Fast Extremely Vast
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Pocket-size, one-gigabyte cartridges.
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LOOKING FORWARD
(but not the K6), the M2 has a split-voltage
design: It interfaces with external compo-
nents at 3.3 volts, but its inner core runs at
2.8 volts. Once the inner core is reduced to
2.5 volts sometime in the second half of the
year, the M2 may debut in mobile PCs.
Rather than licensing MMX from
Intel, Cyrix has equipped the M2 with its
own version of the instruction set. Be-
cause of past court decisions, the compa-
ny is allowed to clone the MMX technol-
ogy from public documentation and even
plans to use its three-letter tag.
UKI A MVW TO THI MA
Beginning with Klamath — a smaller, less
complex MMX version of the Pentium
Pro — each upcoming Intel CPU is code-
named after a Pacific Northwest river.
Note that because Intel will not com-
ment on unannounced chips, much of the
discussion herein is based on published
reports from the industry’s leading news-
letter, Microprocessor Report.
The Klamath chip will
reportedly debut at
" ^ 233 MHz before
midyear, graduat-
ing to 266 MHz
soon thereafter. It
will probably have a
larger die size than
the extant Pentium
Pro but use a 0.35 |j
CMOS process,
which delivers lower
power consumption
by eliminating the
bipolar transistors
used in BiCMOS
7 :.
SPttD
180.200, 22SMHZ
r>ROJf:CTEOf«ltAS(
Late second
quarter of 1997
The M2 offen • dual-voltage
design, like the Pentium MMX,
and features its own variant of
MMX technology. The 22S-
MHt version will havea 7S-
MHt bus. Mam competition.
AMO K6. Intel MMX Pemnjm.
processes.
Whereas the Pentium Pro uses an inte-
grated L2 cache (one dual-cavity package
contains both the CPU and the L2 cache),
Klamath is reportedly a single-chip device
that uses an off-board L2 cache ^ la today's
Pentiums. This approach lowers produc-
tion costs but also reduces efficiency. The
Pentium Pro's L2 cache runs at the CPU's
clock speed, but Klamath’s L2 cache will
probably run at half the CPU clock speed.
That's still faster than the Pentium (which
talks to its L2 cache at a system-bus speed
of either 60 or 66 MHz. depending on the
CPU's speed).
To offset performance losses, Intel has
reportedly upped Klamath’s LI cache.
What About RISC?
By Cade Metz
A s AMD and Cyrix con-
test Intel’s x86 domi-
nance. Intel Is readying a
challenge to the major RISC
vendors. This is not a new
fight, only two years ago. the
microprocessor behemoth
was put to the test by the
PowerPC a RISC processor
developed by Apple, IBM,
and Motorola. Needless to
say. Intel won that battle (at
least in terms of market
share).
Whereas the Pentium, the
Pentium Pro, and their
mainstream competitors are
CISC (complex instruction-
set computing) processors,
workstation-class CPUs such
as the MIPS RIOOOO and
Sun’s UltraSPARC use RISC
(reduced Instruction-set
computing) designs. RISC
chips use simpler instruction
sets to achieve higher clock
frequencies and process
more instructions per clock
cycle than CISC processors.
Historically, RISC designs
have also delivered much
better floating-point perfor-
mance than their CiSC
counterparts. Even Intel’s
flagship Pentium Pro doesn't
match the floating-point
performance of most RISC-
based CPUs. Floating-point
performance Is crucial for
workstation users running
CAD. imaging, and 3-D
modeling applications, a
market Intel wants to breach
with Pentium Pro rrrachines.
Today's RISC-based
systems are the leading
option for professionals who
depend on calculation-
intensive tasks. Systems with
multiple Pentium Pro chips
are beginning to reach a
similar market, however.
because of their attractive
price/performarrce ratio
relative to fUSC machines.
Yet the true long-term threat
to the RISC platform may be
the upcoming IA-64 instruc-
tion set— the result of a
partnership between Intel
and Hewlett-Packard.
MSCATIU5K
The chief caveat as to RISC
chips is that they don’t afford
the widespread compatibility
that an Intel chip does.
Whereas the x86 instruction
set has become a de facto
industry standard. RISC chips
are relatively esoteric prod-
ucts with relatively little
software support. IA-64 is a
fresh 64-bit instruction set
coupling RISC-like (perfor-
mance with Intel's far-
reaching influefKe. Though
Intel and HP jointly devel-
oped IA-64. It’s Intel that will
actually produce the chip.
Originally called the P7. this
chip was renamed Merced.
When Merced debuts
(reportedly by the end of
the century), it could rerrder
RISC chips obsolete. Not
only will its 64-bit design
run x86 software and emu-
late HP's PA-RISC code, but
it will probably (perform
better than most RISC
offerings as well.
As Merced comes into
play, other RISC vendors
may develop new instruc-
tion sets similar to IA-64 or
merely adopt IA-64 itself.
Today, however, companies
such as Digital. HP, IBM,
MIPS, and Sun are advancing
their RISC models.
When it debuts toward
the end of this year, Digital's
Al(pha 21264 microprocessor
should offer the highest per-
formance on the marlot This
CPU will likely debut at a
clock speed of 500 MHz; it
reportedly has tvro 64K U
caches and ^plpys a 64-bit
system bus that approaches
333 MHz. At a reported 300
mm^. it is larger than the
average x86 chip die and has
over IS million transistors—
almost three times as many
as a Pentium Pra
Another performance
leader in the RISC space Is
Hewlett-Packard’s PA-8200.
Already shipping to HP
partners and plarmed for
volume shipments in mid-
1997, this 64-bit chip mea-
sures 337.69 mm' and will
have an initial clock speed of
220 MHz. Unlike other high-
speed chips, which are
krcreaslngly relying on larger
LI caches, the PA-8000 series
use large L2 caches. The PA-
8200 will use two 2MB L2
caches; the CPU will have
roughly 3.8 million transis-
tors. HP will use a 05-mlcron
CMOS manufacturing
process for the PA-8200, but
It should graduate to a 025-
micron technology with the
PA-8500 (due in 1997).
PIltFOItMANCi UADOtS
By the time the PA-8200
arrives, new 025-micron
incarnations of the MIPS
RIOOOO and Sm's Ultra-
SPARC-2 should be shipping.
These will at 275 and 250
MHz, respectively, but they
(xobably won’t match the
performarKe of HP’s chip.
This year. IBM will begin
shi(!)ping its 266-MHz Power-
PC 620, which will (like the
new RIOOOO and the Ultra-
SPARC-2) rival the current
F>erformarKe leader. Digital’s
500-MHz Alpha 21164.
172 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 15. J997
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and strong performance on almost every front”
-PC Magazine, March 26, 1996
DB2® is the Universal database engine for Windows NT.® It gives you a jump on developing video,
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regislefed Iradem^ and BadcOtfce is a tradereaifc of MicrosofI Corporation. Microsofl. BacfcOtfce. and the BackOffice Logo are either regetered iradernarls or iiad^rle of Microsoft In the U.S andAir
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Copyrighted material
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LOOKING FORWARD
^ INTEL
Merced
Intel confirms that the CPU will also he
on a card surrounded by plastic
and metal casing and at-
tached to the motherboard
via an edge connector. This
SEC (single-edge contact) car-
tridge is designed to reduce elec-
trical emissions that may affect
high-speed CPUs.
Today’s Pentium Pro moth-
erboards will be able to accept
Intel's forthcoming SEC car-
tridges with the addition of a
connector. With processor cards
adopting new chip designs, new
caches, and new cache inter-
faces, third-party motherboards
will require relatively few changes. The
SEC cartridge actually gives Intel greater
control over PC configurations (although
the company will initially purchase its
SRAM caches from other sources) and
could keep other chip vendors from
adopting the Pentium Pro platform; the P6
bus is still legally protected by Intel.
Klamath will probably be more adept
than its predecessor at running 16-bit
code. Under 32-bit code, it should match
the current Pentium Pro’s performance,
albeit at higher clock frequencies.
INTIL; OtOeilAnir AND HIOIMONY
Intel’s subsequent offering will be the De-
schutes chip (named for a river that runs
through Oregon). Reportedly manufac-
tured with the 0.25p CMOS process, this
low-voltage Klamath descendant will
likely measure 120 mm’ and debut at 300
to 333 MHz. It is scheduled for introduc-
tion in early 1998, and by the end of that
year it should become Intel’s first mobile
Pentium Pro offering. Until then. 166- and
possibly 200-MHz MMX Pentiums will
command the high-end notebook market.
With Kalmai, Intel has turned to Alas-
ka for a river name. Set to debut in the
middle of 1998, this Deschutes revision
should offer an addendum to MMX,
known appropriately as MMX 2, which
may include more 32-bit instructions than
today’s largely 16-bit MMX instructions.
Originally known as the P68, Intel’s
late-1998 offering is named for yet anoth-
er Oregon river. Willamette will reported-
ly use an enhanced Pentium Pro core that
may outperform Klamath and Deschutes
by close to 50 percent. Its die will proba-
■Mill'
SPEED
Unknown
PROfECIEDNELFASE
1999
Merced marb the end of 46
architteture and the debut of
IA-64, a 64-bit instruction set
created by Tahoe (a
partnership between Hewlett-
Packard artd Intel). The chip
will run 46 code but at a
performance hit compared
with native IA-64 code.
hly he substantially larger than Kla-
^ math’s and Deschutes’s, but it
could come to market with a
100-MHzbus.
Willamette will presumably
anchor mainstream desktops in
1999 and 2000 as the celebrated
Merced processor eases into the
market. Named for a California
river, Merced marks the end of
the ,r86 architecture and the
debut of IA-64. This 64-bit in-
struction set is the result of
I’ahoe, an Intel/Hewlett-Pack-
ard partnership named not for a
river but a lake. Though the two
companies jointly defined the
architecture and its software interfaces, the
physical chip is solely an Intel venture.
CPU choices will abound by
midyear, as will confusion
caused by different clock
speeds, instruction sets, and
motherboards.
Merced should ship in 1999, but it will
not enter the mainstream before the turn
of the decade. The Merced core, reminis-
cent of workstation RISC chip designs
(see the sidebar “What About RISC?”),
will reportedly run a: 86 code without
software assistance. Until Microsoft
ships a 64-bit operating system early
in the next decade, only Unix
users will realize Merced’s
full potential.
^ INTEL
Willamctti
THE Ptonrs CHOICU
By the middle of this year, the
CPU market will be at its most
perplexing. Intel will offer the
MMX Pentium, the Pentium
Pro, and the first Klamath, which
its principal rivals will challengc
with the M2 and the K6. That's
two pinouts, three mother-
boards, five clock speeds, and
two instruction sets.
In the corporate market, the
Pentium Pro — lacking MMX
SPEED
Unknown
PW9ECTEDNEL£ASE
Ute1998
Orifinally known «s P68.
WtlUmene is expected
to outpeifonn KUm*th
andOesdutesbySO
percent. It may feature
more support for H)
geometry, better
Hoating-pomt performance,
and increased parallel-dispatch
capabilitws.
and dependent on obsolete mother-
boards — will begin to fade by the end of
the year. Businesses will then have a
choice between Klamath, the K6, and the
M2, all of which include both MMX and
32-bit optimization.
Even if the K6 and the M2 meet ex-
pectations and rival Intel performance
under both Windows 95 and Windows
NT, they will have difficulty making in-
roads. Before committing to them, PC
vendors must overcome a twofold reluc-
tance: Will Intel punish those who use
competing chips, and is the Pentium
pinout on the verge of obsolescence?
AMD and Cyrix have proven they can
deliver premium chips; now they must
prove they can market them.
AMD hopes that five of the top ten PC
manufacturers will use the K6 by midyear.
That is conceivable, considering that the
chip will sell for about 25 percent less than
Intel’s highest performer, whether Kla-
math or the Pentium Pro. AMD has
learned from the fate of the Cyrix 6x86,
originally priced on a par with the Pen-
tium and a rather poor seller.
Meanwhile, Cyrix is planning to posi-
tion the M2 against the MMX Pentium.
Such a strategy may lessen the chip’s role
in the corporate sector, but it could lead
to success in the home desktop and note-
book markets. The M2’s primary advan-
tage over the K6 and Klamath is its split-
voltage design, which could give it a
mobile presence months before the debut
of Deschutes.
Cyrix may be hampered by the fact that
it’s a fabless company, however. Reports
have ci i culated that the vendor has had
trouble getting enough 6x86
^ parts from its current fab part-
' ners, IBM Microelectronics
and SGS-Thomson (a rumor
that Cyrix denies). This potential
problem will not affect AMD, as
it currently owns two state-of-
Ihe-art fabrication facilities.
If the K6 and the M2 do in-
deed crack the fraternity of
elite PC vendors, the distant K7
and the M3 — which will pre-
sumably abandon the Pentium
pinout — won’t have to endure
the stigma that non-Intel chips
now face. Yet there are many
rivers they will have to cross, □
MARCH ». IW PC MACvXZINE 175
LOOKING FORWARD
E6HN0L0GY
Breakthroughs in plasma.
CRTs, and LCDs will widen
and brighten our views.
By Alfred Poor
From the day that
the first IBM PC
arrived, we have
peered at our data
on a vacuum-tube
screen. While we
readily assume that our futures will be
filled with inexpensive wall-size flat dis-
plays in our offices and homes, we’re still
a long way from affordable access to that
kind of technology.
But if the road from here to there is
long, it already is defined clearly in the
technologies we’ll be relying on for dis-
plays in the next decade and beyond.
Thanks to the success of portable com-
puters, flat-panel display technology has
advanced by leaps and bounds.
Not to be left behind, the famil-
iar vacuum-tube display is chang-
ing with the times. There are also
exciting and exotic technologies
beginning to emerge from labo-
ratories around the world. It is
still hard to know which tech-
nologies will be winners in the
end, but you certainly can count on the
future being lighter, brighter, thinner,
and more affordable.
CAT: STILL A LONS SHIU Lin
The familiar CRT, or cathode ray tube, has
been around in one form or another for
nearly 100 years. In a CRT, a stream of
electrons is beamed from one end of a vac-
uum tube to the other, where a layer of
176 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
chemical phosphors glows with different
colors in response to the electrons. The
standard desktop monitor and the home
television share the same fundamental de-
sign principles, though they are imple-
mented quite differently.
Home television designs favor image
brightness and compact size, while com-
puter screens need to be engineered for
higher resolution and sharp images. It is
difficult to make the image on a monitor
as bright as television, because the extra
power required to drive the electron beam
harder causes the shadow mask — a perfo-
rated metal mask that defines the pixels
we see on-screen — to heat and deform,
which hurts resolution and image quality.
There have been many changes in re-
cent years that improved CRT monitor
quality. New materials such as Invar for
shadow masks have more thermal stabili-
ty to resist the effects of electron beam
heat. Screen technologies such as aperture
grilles, black matrix masks, and Toshiba’s
Microfilter increase contrast and color pu-
rity, and advances in antiglare coatings
have improved image quality.
NEC’s new CromaClear slot mask
also has made CRT images notice-
ably sharper and brighter.
We have not yet seen every-
thing under the CRT sun, how-
HXEiiNKPiASMir' finally has ap-
PAxa proved a plan that will let
implementation of HDTV — high-
definition television — proceed. This could
create a convergence between the tele-
vision and data monitor markets, as
HDTV specifications call for resolutions of
up to 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, which is more
than adequate for desktop data displays.
Not only does this work well with digitized
video (especially DVD multimedia), com-
puter users also may appreciate the wider
workspace offered by a 16:9 ratio screen
INSIDE
WIDE SONY
cut!
tO'WCIINEC
AKD SCEPTRE LCD
MONITORS
(compared with the now-standard 4:3 pro-
portions). As a result, desktop monitors
may enjoy economies of scale if the con-
sumer television market also embraces
HDTV and both types of designs can use
the same tubes. In the interim, some mak-
ers are testing the waters with wide-aspect-
ratio displays. Sharp introduced its Wide-
Note notebook computer with a wide,
rectangular screen, and we review Sony’s
GDM-W900 wide-aspect desktop monitor
later in this section.
Two problems remain with standard
CRT designs: As the screen size gets bigger,
the depth and weight of the unit increase
dramatically. Right now, a monitor is about
1 inch deep for every inch of diagonal screen
real estate. So even 20-inch displays are not
practical for many users, because there sim-
ply isn't enough rcxim on the desk. In the
labs, there are radical designs that place the
electron guns along one side of the screen,
resulting in a greatly reduced tube depth,
which in turn could mean lighter and small-
er CRT s for a given screen size.
LCD; THI NIXT OISKTOP STANDARD?
While CRTs enjoy an enormous lead in
the marketplace, the manufacturers sure-
ly are hearing the footsteps of other tech-
nologies that are closing ground. The
most visible and active challengers are
LCDs — liquid crystal displays.
Made popular as notebook displays,
LCDs are conceptually simple: A thin
layer of material can be used to transmit
or block light. With this material arranged
in an array of tiny cells, each pixel in an
image can be turned on or off as required.
LCDs have significant advantages over
CRTs for the portable market. They are
lightweight and thin, and their power con-
sumption is low enough that they can be
run from batteries. As they move to the
desktop, however, only the thin attribute
Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
Cathode Ray Tube
In a CRT, a stream of electrons are
beamed from one end of a vacuum
tube to the other. The beams go
through a shadow mask that creates
the pixels we see when a layer of
chemical phosphors glows with
different colors in resportse to the
electrons.
Fou r Wa ys to Display
Liquid Crystal Display
In an LCD. a thin layer of material
transmits or blocks light from a back-
light (with color filters) as needed. The
material is arranged in an array of tiny
cells, with each celt representing a
single pixel.
'iJl^
Field Emission Displays
FED panels are similar to CRTs in that a
front layer of phosphors gives off light
when excited by emitted electrons. In
an FED panel, however, tiny electron
emitters are placed behind each pixel,
all in a panel just a few millimeters
thick.
■ Plasma
K A pixel in a plasma displa
y works much
H like a familiar fluorescent
flight. Electri-
BF cally charged gas emits u
Itravioiet
C light, which then strikes and excites
^ phosphors, emitting visible light for a
r given cell.
provides a compelling advantage. Note-
book users will pay a premium for porta-
bility and put up with a small display, but
desktop users are loath to pay more for
less than they can get with a CRT.
A number of important changes have
occurred in the LCD market that may
alter this situation. First and foremost,
LCD manufacturers have found ways to
increase the yields of production lines,
helping to drive down display costs. Ac-
cording to some sources, the yield on 10.4-
inch active-matrix LCD panels is still as
low as 60 to 70 percent, and production
improvements make it possible for yields
of 80 to 85 percent to be achievable.
Another change to note is that LCD
production lines have been designed to
produce larger and larger sheets of glass,
making it possible to make more panels at
a time, or fewer larger panels. We now
have seen the first 20-inch production
units. Displays such as NEC's MultiSync
LCD2000 reviewed here are far too big for
notebook applications, and arc clearly des-
tined for the desktop.
There may be no limit to the size of
LCDs. Sharp has demonstrated a 40-inch-
diagonal active-matrix screen with a reso-
lution of 800 by 600 pixels. The Sharp 40-
inch TFT LCD is made by joining two 29-
inch panels using a new bonding
technique. The company has made only a
technology prototype, however, and has
no immediate plans to market a product
based on this process.
People are used to both a bright image
and a wide viewing angle from a desktop
CRT. and advances in LCD technology
.[lal
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 177
LOOKING FORWARD
are attempting to achieve similar perfor-
mance. New films have been designed to
concentrate the light behind an LCD and
diffuse it as it leaves the display. A num-
ber of different approaches have been
taken to increase viewing angles, includ-
ing the use of thinner LCD layers, high-
tech optical films, and horizontal (or in-
plane) switching, in which the LCD cells
are arranged sideways in the panel.
The biggest problem with LCDs re-
mains cost. An LCD for a desktop system
still costs four to eight times as much as an
equivalent monitor based on CRT tech-
nology. The problem gets worse as the
screen size increases, because production
yields drop as the size of the panel and
number of pixels increase. It is possible
that the prices will drop enough in the near
future to make LCDs a competitive re-
placement for CRTs, but that remains
years in the future. For the near term, it ap-
pears that an LCD plays best at sizes up to
20 inches diagonal. Beyond that, other
technologies look more promising.
PLASMA: A NRSONAL THIATER
For really large flat-panel displays, a dif-
ferent technology has come to the fore.
Fujitsu, Matsushita (the parent company
of Panasonic), Mitsubishi, NEC, and Pio-
neer have all demonstrated 40-inch or
larger color plasma panels, with some
models ready to enter into production.
Plasma panels have been around nearly
as long as the PC. The earliest were mono-
chrome, with a rusty-red color to the pixels.
They were used in transportable computers
and as large, high-resolution displays for
engineering workstations. Only in recent
years were phosphors developed for full-
color displays, along with new fabrication
techniques required to accommodate the
red, green, and blue phosphors.
A pixel in a plasma display works much
like a familiar fluorescent light: Electrical-
ly charged gas emits ultraviolet light, which
then strikes and excites phosphors emitting
visible light. In some designs, the phospho-
rs are at the front surface of the cell, while
others have the phosphors at the back, and
the front surface is transparent.
Here again, price is a limiting factor for
the near term: Pixelink’s 42-inch plasma
display (which we reviewed) employs a
Fujitsu panel and costs about $15,000.
Over time, the phosphors degrade and the
178 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 2.1, 1W7
screen will lose brightness. Current panels
are rated for 10,000 hours of use (or five
years of 40-hour work weeks), which
translates into more than $1 per hour.
Hence, most plasma screen manufac-
turers are targeting the market for 40- to
60-inch displays for corporate boardrooms
and public displays, where their thinness
(about 5 inches deep) and wide viewing
The crystal ball for the
future of displays shows
sharper, brighter, thinner,
and larger monitors
for our PCs.
angle make them attractive despite the
high cost. In the future, lower prices and
longer phosphor life could make such dis-
plays suitable for home theater.
There are all sorts of other technolo-
gies just reaching the market, and depend-
ing on how development progresses, any
one of them could become a major factor
in the next generation of desktop displays.
For example, a number of companies
have created micropanel displays. Instead
of using glass or plastic as a substrate, these
designs create a display device right on a
semiconductor wafer employing more or
less standard fabrication processes that
currently are used for memory chips and
other computer components. Many of
these designs use liquid crystal technology,
but some are based on more exotic ap-
proaches such as ferro-electric liquid crys-
tals or defraction technology. Texas In-
struments has also created its Digital Light
Processing technology, which uses micro-
scopic mirrors on a chip to deflect light.
(We awarded DLP technology, which is
currently being used in data projectors, an
Award for Technical Excellence in 1996.)
These micropanel designs have been
used for head-mounted displays and image
projectors, and they could also be utilized
as the basis for small desktop rear-projec-
tion displays to replace CRTs. At least one
company — Fujitsu — has discussed plans to
create such a device before the end of 1997,
targeted to be about 5 inches deep and to
sell for about 1.5 to 2 times the price of an
equivalent-size CRT monitor.
FID FANILS: FURTHIR IN THI FUTURI
CRTs and plasma panels are emissive de-
signs — meaning that they emit light — in
contrast to the transmissive approach of
many LCDs or the reflective design of
TI's DLP technology. There are a number
of other emissive designs under develop-
ment, including electroluminescent tech-
nology. One of the most promising new
approaches in this area, however, is FED
panels: field emission displays,
FED panels are similar to CRTs in
that a front layer of phosphors gives off
light when excited by emitted electrons.
The difference is that instead of the
three electron guns in a CRT, FED pan-
els place dozens or hundreds of tiny
electron emitters behind each pixel, all
in a panel just a few millimeters thick.
The effect is a digital panel in which
each pixel is controlled directly — as with
an active-matrix LCD — but where the
light is emitted by the phosphors at that
individual pixel as in a CRT.
There are a number of companies work-
ing on this technology, and PixTech has al-
ready produced a quarter-VGA mono-
chrome panel in sampling quantities for
developers. The company has also demon-
strated full-color 6-inch and 10.5-inch FED
panels. PixTech has formed alliances with
Futaba, Motorola, and Raytheon, which
have licensed the company's designs.
Another company that is making
progress in the FED race is Candescent
Technologies Corp., which calls its de-
sign Thin CRTs. The company's part-
ners include Compaq and Hewlett-
Packard. Candescent has announced
plans to create a 12.1-inch color FED
panel for use in an HP OmniBook
portable in 1998, in which a CRT-like
display could provide a competitive ad-
vantage over LCD designs.
While the crystal ball tor the future of
displays may be a bit out of focus at this
point, it is clear that we can expect to see
sharper, brighter, clearer, and larger mon-
itors for our computers. And though we
may have to pay more in the short term,
many of these new designs will eome in
smaller and lighter packages.
Co . Ltd oSftGHtndThty'r* your idMtt.W«iuit holpTM CM Amorfc*. Inc. Qvtt. Sprint Moiorol«.8ii«l ^
T\ated retail |Hli. a^unTprica may vary **OvornigM exchange in U.S. and Canada only. tFree with purchase
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LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
WHEN COST IS NO OBJECT
The big, beautiful displays of tomorrow now are reaching the market, but their high
prices will give most users pause. By Alfred Poor
F rom CRTs to LCDs to plasma dis-
plays, the cutting-edge crop of com-
puter monitors is something to behold.
Here we review the new wide-aspect CRT
display from Sony, desktop LCD monitors
from NEC and Sceptre, and a 42-inch Pix-
elink plasma display that can hang on the
wall of the boardroom (or bedroom).
SONY^ WIM WOMO View
Take one look at Sony Electronics’
MultiScan GDM-W900 ($4,999) and you
know you’re looking at something dif-
ferent. Where all computer monitors
have the nearly square 4:3 proportions,
this new monitor has a 16:10 wide view
similar to HDTV’s 16:9 aspect ratio. The
MultiScan W900 is big: Its CRT mea-
sures 24 inches diagonally and delivers a
viewable area of 22.5 inches. Sony has
targeted the new monitor for engineer-
ing, graphic arts, and video development
applications.
As you might expect, not all graphics
adapters are able to take advantage of the
30 percent extra width of the display area.
At the time we tested the monitor, cards
from Elsa, Integrated Micro Solutions,
and Number 9 were available that sup-
ported the wide aspect ratio of the display
(Sony provided the card from Integrated
Micro Solutions for our tests). The unit
24-inch CRT ($4,999).
has both standard and BNC coaxial con-
nectors on the back, and a switch on the
front panel makes it easy to toggle be-
tween input sources.
The monitor is capable of resolu-
tions up to 1,920 by 1,200 pixels at a
76-Hz refresh rate, which is about the
same resolution as a 1,600-by- 1,200
image on a monitor with standard pro-
portions. Its picture tube is based on
Sony’s famous Trinitron technology,
so it has the familiar vertically flat
front glass. The monitor uses a vari-
able-pitch aperture grill (0.25 to 0.28
mm), which makes it possible to use a
wider deflection on the electron gun
yoke, so the tube can be made with
less depth than in a traditional design.
The monitor is about 21.5 inches deep,
or about the same as a standard 21-
inch monitor.
The large display area lets you see
two desktop publishing pages side by
side at full size. Not only is the display
large but it also makes beautiful images.
The only flaws noticeable on the screen
were some slight convergence errors at
the edges, but the monitor’s on-screen
menu included sophisticated screen-
geometry adjustments, so it was quick and
easy to make the image nearly perfect.
NIC’S SOLD AND SIAUTirUL LCD
If you like the idea of a flat-screen
desktop monitor, but you need a
large screen, you’ll want to look at
NEC Technologies’ Multisync
LCD2000, which has a screen mea-
suring 20 inches from corner to cor-
ner. We were able to obtain a pro-
totype of the new display for
evaluation, and in spite of some
preproduction flaws, the monitor
instantly drew crowds whenever it
was in use. Alas, its high initial
price — probably around $10,000 —
will keep it in the realm of specialty
markets such as medical and finan-
cial institutions.
The active-matrix LCD panel has a
resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels. Setup
for the monitor is easy: It uses an analog
interface, so you can attach it to any
graphics card capable of producing a
l,280-by-l,024-resolution image with a
vertical refresh rate of 60 to 75 Hz. The
monitor has a single set of multipurpose
buttons on the control panel, with an on-
screen menu system to let you configure
the display quickly and easily.
Image quality is, in a word, breathtak-
NEC’s 20-inch MultiSync LCD 2000 (about
$ 10 , 000 ).
ing. In testing, colors were rich and satu-
rated, and the high resolution made even
small text crisp and easy to read. The
image appeared to be as bright as on a
CRT under normal office lighting condi-
tions. Perhaps even more impressive,
NEC employs in-plane switching: The
LCD cells are arranged sideways, so the
LCD crystals are arranged horizontally in-
stead of vertically. This results in a wider
viewing angle comparable to what you’d
see on a CRT monitor. Indeed, we were
~ able to move far off-center and still see the
image clearly, which has been a sticking
point for LCDs in the past.
As you would expect from a display
named MultiSync, the LCD2000 can dis-
play images at several resolutions. NEC’s
FullScan feature expands images dis-
played at less than l,280-by-l,024 to fill
the whole screen. This works well for
VGA (640-by-480) images. Text-inten-
sive SVGA (800-by-600) and XGA
(l,024-by-768) images, however, can be
difficult to read, as the stroke weights
within individual letters vary greatly.
180 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
sanurs portahi unit
While NEC's 20-inch LCD may prove
too exotic and pricey for most users,
other LCD manufacturers are rolling out
somewhat more accessible models. The
Sceptre CD-IJ15T, from Sceptre Technolo-
gies ($3,695). is a 14.5-inch active-matrix
LCD with 1.024-by-768 resolution aimed
at mobile professionals and vertical mar-
kets such as hospitals and industrial
clean rooms.
The unit's screen may not sound par-
ticularly large, but keep in mind that the
true 14.5-inch viewable area is an inch or
more larger than what you get on a 15-
inch CRT. You cannot use a standard
graphics adapter, but the list price in-
cludes a proprietary graphics adapter
based on the Trident 9662 chip set. This
card provides a digital interface for the
monitor, and a single cable with high-
density connectors carries both power
and the image signal from your computer
to the display.
Unlike a CRT, which can produce a
nearly infinite range of colors, the LCD
panel used in the Sceptre display is limit-
ed to 262,000 different colors. Also, the
graphics card driver is limited to 256 col-
ors. These limitations might pose a prob-
lem for graphic artists, but the color im-
ages on our tests looked good for
general-purpose applications.
One attractive feature of the display
system is that it gives you a choice when
displaying images of a lower resolution
(such as 800-by-600 or 640-by-480). You
can choose to have the image shrink on
the screen so that it uses one LCD cell
per pixel, or you can have the display ex-
pand the image to fill the screen (al-
though this approach can make small
type difficult to read, as some
strokes in the letters will be
thicker than others).
Another handy aspect of
the design is that you can re-
move the panel from its base
and hang the display on a wall.
The unit is only 2.5 inches
deep, and it weighs 7.5 pounds
without its base, which makes it
valuable as a portable presen-
tation aid. The display also has
built-in stereo speakers.
The CD-1215T costs about
four times as much as an equiv-
alent 17-inch monitor does, so
you pay a significant premium
for saving space and weight.
The product’s proprietary interface is a
limitation, but Sceptre plans to have an
analog version of the monitor out soon
that will operate with any standard
graphics adapter.
PIXIUNrt HXV PLASMA PAHIL
For a really big picture on your data,
consider Hudson, Massachusetts-based
Pixelink Corp.'s new Pixelink PX42, a flat-
panel display based on Fujitsu’s
42-inch-diagonal color plasma display.
This panel employs HDTV's 16:9 aspect
ratio, so its 852-by-480 resolution is
equivalent to a wide-screen
version of a VGA-resolution
(640-by-480) screen. Priced at
around $15,000, the PX42 is
meant to compete with data
projectors in corporate board-
rooms.
The display is based on Fu-
jitsu's 42-inch color plasma
panel, the first of its size to
enter mass production. Since
the panel uses light-emissive
technology — the plasma ex-
cites phosphors, which then
glow — you get a wide viewing
angle in all directions, just as
with a CRT. The big difference
is that the 42-inch display is
about 5 inches thick and weighs
85 pounds, which makes it suit-
able for mounting on a wall.
Since the light for each pixel is gener-
ated at that specific spot (as with an
LCD panel), there are no problems with
convergence or image geometry. The
panel is capable of producing 16.7 mil-
lion colors, placing it on a par with many
active-matrix LCD panels and making it
suitable for full-color displays. The red,
green, and blue subpixels are arranged
in vertical stripes, as in a Trinitron slot-
mask CRT display.
The Pixelink implementation of the
Fujitsu panel offers a standard VGA
input as well as S-Video and Composite
Video interfaces. The VGA resolu-
tion — albeit in a wide-screen format — is
coarse compared with other higher-res-
olution displays that are typically used.
The resolution is perfect for viewing
video and computer-based presenta-
tions, however.
Images from the panel are generally
clear, and colors show well. Plasma pan-
els generally have problems with con-
touring, which shows up as pixelization
and improper shading when large areas
of color move on the screen. The Fujitsu
panel shows some of this, but an error-
diffusion algorithm reduces the effect to
subtle levels.
The panel shows text and graphics
well, even from 40 feet away. Improve-
ments made by Fujitsu in this third gener-
ation of the panel have raised the bright-
ness to near-LCD levels. Fujitsu reports
that production of this panel is ramping
up quickly, so look for prices to come
down as much as 30 percent by 1998, □
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MACiAZINE 181
20*inch LCD moflitor ($},695).
Pix«link's 42*inch plasma panel is perfect for presentations
(around $1S,000).
Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
FUTU
SIMUCE
Magnetic, optical, and
holographic technologies
will offer endless storage.
By M. David Stone
Since the first elec-
tronic computers
in mid-century, the
story of computer
storage has been
one of steady
growth in capacity with shrinking sizes
and prices. As recently as 1984, the 20MB
hard disk on the original IBM PC seemed
to be enough for any user. Today, the typ-
ical desktop capacity is closer to 1 00 times
that: 2GB. With this rate of growth, a typ-
ical desktop system in a dozen years will
offer 200GB of storage.
Whether that 200GB storage medium
will be a descendant of the Winchester
magnetic disk drive is open to debate.
Even when hard disks hit their limits —
something that may happen in the next
ten years — there’s plenty of room for
growth in other technologies. Some tech-
nologies. such as holographic storage,
are still in research labs but look increas-
ingly practical. Others, such as storing
data in a pattern of individual atoms by
moving the atoms with a scanning tun-
neling microscope, are better understood
as intriguing possibilities than as imme-
diate storage solutions.
A number of schemes that look
promising now will surely turn out to be
dead ends, but others will just as surely
pan out. However you look at it, the fu-
ture for storage seems expansive.
The trend to greater capacity is built
on the ability to squeeze more and more
bits into any given area, a measure known
as areal density. There are physical limits
to how much information you can shoe-
horn into each square inch, which means
the trend has to level off at some point.
But we're nowhere near that point yet.
The hard disk has come a long way
since IBM introduced its 305 RAMAC
(Random Access Method of Accounting
and Control) 40 years ago. The 305
RAMAC used 24-inch platters (50 of
them), was roughly the size of two refrig-
erators, and offered 5MB of storage at
$10,000 per megabyte. Areal density was
2 kilobits or 256 bytes per square inch.
By the time the first IBM PC came out
in 1981 (without a hard disk as standard
equipment), you could find 5MB drives
that fit in a full-height 5.25-inch bay for
about $1,000 per megabyte. Areal densi-
ty had climbed to 2 megabits per square
inch. Today, areal density is better than
500 megabits per square inch,
and some PCs offer up to 1.4 gi-
gabits per square inch — or
175MB on the area of a postage
stamp. The cost is about 10 to 15
cents per megabyte.
The primary route to improv-
ing density during the next five
years is to improve the sensitivity of the
read head. And much of the recent im-
provement in areal density has come
from the move to MR (magnetoresistive)
heads, which are more sensitive than the
older thin-film inductive heads. MR
heads are still new enough to have plen-
ty of room for straightforward, evolu-
tionary improvement.
In December of last year, for example,
IBM announced that it had reached a
density of 5 gigabits per square inch by
using an MR head. This laboratory
demonstration used essentially the same
technology as today’s drives, reports Ed
Grochowski, program manager of storage
devices at IBM. The company expects
drive capacity to grow three- to fivefold in
as little as two years, and as much as ten-
fold by 2002. Street prices will fall to 3
cents per megabyte by the year 2000.
When MR heads bump up against
their limits, still more sensitive heads,
called spin-valve heads, will be waiting in
the wings. Spin-valve heads depend on
something called the giant magnetoresis-
tive effect (GMR) — discovered only in
1988 — which uses various thin-film layers
to produce a greater change in resistance
and thus the greater sensitivity.
Spin-valve heads will likely take over
from MR heads for densities greater
than 5 gigabits per square inch and will
probably take hard disks up to at least 10
gigabits per square inch.
Another benefit of increasing areal
density is that it also improves perfor-
mance: As you pack bits closer
together, the head can read more,
more quickly, because more bits
pass under the head. A 4,500-rpm
disk with a high areal density ac-
tually offers a faster throughput
than a 5,400-rpm disk with a
lower areal density.
But rotational speed isn’t standing still.
Most drives today spin at 4,500 or 5,400
rpm, the fastest at 7,200. This year we’ll
see the first 10,000-rpm drives (the Sea-
gate Cheetah is reviewed here). Inter-
faces, of course, will also have to get faster
so they won’t become a bottleneck. Fiber
Channel, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), and Ser-
ial Storage Architecture (SSA) could re-
place SCSI as the high-performance inter-
faces of choice, though the SCSI road map
shows improvements coming there, too.
The ultimate limit for hard disk capac-
ity is a hot topic among disk engineers. As
the bits, which are magnetized areas on
INSIDE
TAKMCKUi'
sorrwME
1ISIIMMTAK
CMTRIDCES
FUSH MEMORY
DVD
182 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighlad material
LOOKING FORWARD
the disk, get smaller and smaller, they will
eventually reach a point where the energy
required to retain magnetization is equal
to the thermal energy of the environment.
In other words, if you have small enough
magnets, the magnetic fields in effect
won't be stable at room temperature.
This limit, called the superparamag-
netic limil, lies at an areal density some-
where between 50 and 100 gigabits per
square inch, a level that we are likely to
reach within the next ten years. There are
two schools of thought about this limil.
One says that it's the end of the road for
magnetic disks. The other says that the
limit will be extended with new materials
or new structures for the disk. A structure
that isolated each magnetic domain from
its neighbors, for example, would make
the domains more stable. According to
Ed Grochowski, there is a lot of optimism
that the limit can be extended.
OmCAL OISKS: SCVUIAI. ROADS AHIAO
The immediate future for optical disks is
set in concrete. The big news here is
DVD, which is likely to dominate the ac-
tion for the next few years as DVD's var-
ious flavors take over from CD-ROM
and CD-R drives in the PC arena (for
more information see “21st-Century
Storage," PC Magazine, January 21.
1997). For storage, DVD-RAM disks.
expected early in 1998. initially will offer
capacities of 2.6GB.
The first-generation DVD-RAM spec-
ification uses phase change technology;
it's not certain, however, that this will re-
main true for later generations. Magneto-
optical (MO) technology is a viable alter-
native on this evolutionary path, and a
somewhat unknown specification —
M07 — eventually may challenge phase-
change DVD-RAM.
As the name implies. M07 drives use
MO technology with a capacity of 6 to 7
gigabytes per platter. Unlike current MO
disks, which employ the 5.25-inch format,
the disks M07 drives use will be 120-mm
disks, like CDs and DVDs. M07 drives
can be designed to read DVD disks.
Will later generations of DVD-RAM
use phase-change or MO technology? The
answer will likely depend on which tech-
nology increases areal density faster. One
route to increased density is multiple layers.
Phase-change technology has the advan-
tage here; it needs only to solve the prob-
lem of how to adjust the laser to affect the
right layer. MO drives need to control both
the laser and the magnetic field, since its
reading and writing abilities rely on both.
Conversely, Sony has demonstrated a tech-
nique called magnetic resolution that will let
MO drives write smaller bits, which will in-
crease areal density without extra layers.
There are other reasons why you can't
count out MO drives just yet. In addition
to the battle for dominance of 12-
centimeter disks, there is likely to be a
separate battle for 3.5-inch or smaller for-
mats. As John Freeman of Strategic Mar-
keting Decisions points out, the CD-size
disk is too large for convenient portabili-
ty. DVD-RAM technology may also
show up in a smaller disk size, with an 8-
centimeter format already defined (if
largely ignored). But 3.5-inch MO tech-
nology has a big head start.
As we look 10 to 15 years ahead, fur-
ther improvements in areal density will
depend largely on progress with lasers.
Shorter-wavelength lasers, using frequen-
cies in the green and blue range, will work
with any optical technology to give each
bit a smaller spot on the disk. As with hard
disks, a higher areal density will go hand in
hand with improved performance. De-
signing shorter-wavelength lasers, how-
ever, is a challenge that has yet to be met.
TAM: ‘mi HST IS ver TO COM!
Tape has long been the most popular
choice for backing up. because it offers
the lowest cost per megabyte of any stor-
age medium. But the sequential nature of
tape, and hence its slow performance, has
made it a poor choice for primary storage.
The most interesting possibilities for tape
2010: Holographic Storage
A. To record and retrieve data in the
holographic storage paradigm, a laser
creates a single beam.
B. The spatial light modulator composes
the digital Information, a page at a
time, in a two-dimensional image. /
C The laser beam is split by light
deflectors into an object beam
and a reference beam.
D. The object beam illuminates the
page of data, while the reference
beam creates an interference pat-
tern that is stored as a hologram on
the recording medium. 4
E. To read the data, the device shinef
the reference beam on the holo-
gram. A CCD can then see the origi-
nal stored page.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 183
Copyright!^ material
LOOKING FORWARD
in the next few years are schemes that will
make tape more like a random-access
medium — with the hope of eventually
making it just as fast as a disk for retriev-
ing or writing files.
There are already some steps in this di-
rection with PGSoft’s Tape-It and Sea-
gate's Direct Tape Access (the latter is re-
viewed here). Both of these programs
make your tape drive look like a disk
drive to your operating system. Loading a
file can still take several seconds rather
than the milliseconds we're used to with a
hard disk, because the drive first has to
wind the tape to the beginning of the file.
But saving files is a snap, since the soft-
ware saves to RAM or hard disk, then
transfers files to the tape.
More sophisticated tape schemes are
under development. The Eagle Division
of Exabyte, for example, is working on a
solution that it hopes will give instant ac-
cess to files on a tape drive, at least for
large files such as video clips. The scheme
automatically will create reference areas
on the tape. These reference areas will in-
clude enough frames from each video clip
to give the tape time to reach a file while
your system plays the first frames. Other
companies are working on schemes that
will use tape for primary storage and use
the hard disk strictly for caching.
Part of the tape's success in the coming
years depends on faster performance, so
you can get the data off the tape quickly
enough to compete with hard disk speeds.
Look for a move to MR heads and servo
tracks (extra tracks that help the drive find
the data tracks) in tape drives, eight-chan-
nel heads (as opposed to the one-channel
heads used by most current tape drives),
and digital rather than analog channels, to
give even inexpensive tape drives higher
transfer rates and better reliability.
In the five- to ten-year time frame, the
move to 16-track heads is a predictable
improvement. Beyond that, the laser
technology currently in optical drives may
make it to tape, producing optical tape.
Bob LiVolsi, vice president and general
manager of Exabyte's Eagle Division,
puts optical tape in the five- to ten-year
range. Others would argue that ten years
is the more realistic number.
An optical tape drive would boost
both capacity and speed significantly
compared with magnetic tape. And as
LiVolsi points out, given reference areas
duplicated throughout the tape, storing
data on optical tape could be indistin-
guishable from storing it on-disk. This
may be a rosy picture, but it certainly ex-
plains why Exabyte views tape as some-
thing whose time is yet to come.
EMIllOINO UCHNOIOGIIS
Certainly the most intriguing emerging
technology is holographic storage, which
seems on the verge of becoming practical.
A common refrain in the industry is that
it's hard to predict what storage will look
like in 10 to 15 years; by then, holography
could change the world completely.
The basics of holographic storage are
simple enough. First, you compose a page
that represents the digital information as
a two-dimensional image, using a device
called a spatial light modulator (SLM).
Then you create a hologram of the image.
Creating the hologram involves opti-
cally splitting a laser beam, then using
mirrors to direct the split beams. One
beam, called the object beam, illuminates
the page before it joins with another
beam, called the reference beam, to create
an interference pattern that's recorded as
a hologram. To read the data, you simply
recreate the reference beam and shine it
on the hologram to reproduce the image
of the page. It's no trick at all to read the
image with a CCD array, which is simply
an array of photodetectors.
Holographic storage has all sorts of ad-
vantages. To begin with, holograms aren't
stored as pictures but as wave-interference
patterns. If you cut a hologram in two. you
don't get two halves of the image; you get
two whole images. For storage, that means
a defect in the storage medium won't wipe
out any data. The information is stored re-
dundantly throughout the hologram.
You also can store multiple holograms
in the same place, or volume, by varying
the laser's angle or wavelength. Since each
page can hold more than a million bits and
you can, in theory, store thousands of
pages in a dime-size volume, the potential
volumetric density (the closest equivalent
to areal density) is measured in terabits —
trillions of bits. And since holographic
storage will read a full page at a time, per-
formance also promises to be impressive.
Even more exotic than holography are
two possibilities that depend on something
called proximal probe techniques using an
atomic force microscope (AFM) or scan-
ning tunneling microscope (STM). AFM
schemes use a heated tip to burn pits on a
surface. The pits are so small that they are
measured in nanometers (billionths of a
meter) and have a theoretical maximum-
areal density measured in hundreds of
gigabits per square inch. STM techniques
represent the ultimate storage scheme,
moving individual atoms around to repre-
sent bits. Both possibilities right now are
strictly at the level of basic research.
The preferred storage solution for 15
years from now remains unknown, how-
ever. It could be any possibility men- §
tioned here. Or it could be something else i
altogether. Exabyte's Bob LiVolsi sus- |
pects that we haven't yet seen the inven- |
tion that will serve as storage in the year i
2010. He may well be right. i
CD and DVD Compatibility: Will This Play That?
The road from read-only CD-ROM to rewritable DVD-RAM is mapped out clearly. Less clear is the
interoperability of the various disk formats in between. This grid shows the drive types and which
formats they will support, according to the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA).
*Not<lnufK/4CTwm'dmnwitlrf«lit«roimii Owckthripfcificiliombrfoit]nubu]r
184 PC' MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
Protect yourself from viruses.
What part of your life are
you willing to risk?
Your financial records?
Your email?
Business correspondence?
Your business files?
Your personal files?
Your applications?
Funny articles off the Internet?
Your type fonts?
Your personal organizer?
Your games? (Yikes!)
Love letters?
Your kid^ sports schedule?
Budgets?
Your stock portfolio?
Meeting notes?
Faxes?
Medical history?
Did we mention your financial records?
ft only takes a few minutes to protect
yourself. Is that too much?
►
More of your life goes on the computer
every day. Could you lose it all? It's more likely
than you think. If you or your children share
floppy disks, you could pick up a virus. If you
download stuff from the Internet, you could
pick up a virus. Either way, everything in your
computer is at risk.
That's why you should protect yourself
with Norton AntiVirus* Norton AntiVirus
automatically detects and eliminates virtually
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or attack your files.
But what about new viruses? After all. more
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Well, at the Symantec AntiVirus Research
Center, the industry's largest dedicated team
of virus experts works continuously to identify
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We make sure you get our latest
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Norton AntiVirus ^
Norton software from Symantec
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Protecting you from viruses is just
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Visit us at www.symantec.com.
Or call 1 -800-822-M 1 7. ext. 9t 1 1 2 for
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ijyrit*.
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING MASS STORAGE
EVEN FASTER AND SMALLER
DVD finally makes its appearance, but advances in tape, hard disk, and PC card devices
ensure continued market diversity. By m. David stone
A s in the past, the future of mass stor-
age shows a variety of technologies
existing and evolving side by side. In
these reviews we glimpse the latest in tape
and hard disk solutions. We also try out
Intel’s answer to the need for miniature
removable storage for portable devices,
and we test one of the first available
DVD-ROM drives.
SIAOATrS MTTIR TAH MaiUP
There's a new kind of tape drive soft-
ware in town. Seagate Technology’s Sea-
gate Direct Tape Access 1.0S (the first ship-
ping version) is the most recent example
and only the second program of its kind.
The whole point of DTA, like PGSoft’s
Tape-it, is to make your tape drive look
like a disk drive to Microsoft Windows,
freeing you from having to use dedicated
backup software to store or retrieve files.
DTA is available now for Windows 3.1
and Windows 95 ($89 list, $60 street) and
is also bundled with selected drives from
Hewlett-Packard, Iomega, and Tand-
berg.
To back up, you copy files to the tape
drive using File Manager, Explorer,
XCOPY in a DOS window, or the copy
command in any other program. To re-
place lost or damaged files, you use any
program to copy the files back from
the tape.
Since the storage medium is still se-
quential tape, DTA may take seconds or
tens of seconds to find a file and start
loading it, or to find the right place on
the tape to start saving a file. But the wait
is acceptable for large files that you load
only occasionally. This software made
our tape drive much more inviting to use
for near-line storage, since we didn’t
have to launch a program such as Sea-
gate’s Backup Exec and execute a Re-
store command.
Moreover, we had expected that using
a tape drive as a disk would be a little like
going to see the wonderful dancing bear,
where the wonder is not how well the
bear dances but that it dances at all. In
tests with a Travan-3 tape drive, howev-
er. the DTA approach worked more
quickly and more smoothly than
we had anticipated.
The bear, it turns out, dances
pretty well. And there’s a good
chance that DTA. or something
similar, will soon replace or supple-
ment backup and restore programs
for most tape drives.
■AOLTS HiaH-n.YIN« VIDiO ON TAPI
The Eagle DiglMax. from the Eagle
Division of Exabyte Corp., is a new
kind of 8-mm tape drive in more
ways than one. The drive (avail-
able this fall for less than $50(1 on
the street) delivers 13GB native
capacity on each tape cartridge. More in-
triguing, it’s optimized for MPEG-2
video. The capacity, perfor-
mance, and low cost per
megabyte make the DigiMax a
contender for video-archiving ap-
plications now dominated by op-
tical storage paradigms.
Among the DigiMax’s lead-
ing-edge features is a magneto-
resistive head that reads and
writes eight tracks (or what Eagle
calls channels) at a time. Accord-
ing to Eagle, the tracks allow
enough redundancy that you can lose
more than a full track without losing data.
The tape itself includes permanent servo
tracks to maintain alignment; this allows
thinner — and therefore more — data
tracks across the 8-mm width of the tape.
Among its MPEG-2 optimizations, the
drive varies tape speed to match the rate
of incoming data as the level of compres-
sion varies from one moment to the next.
Eagle claims the 2-MBps (2-megabyte-
per-second) maximum throughput is fast
enough to keep up with video recording
or playback even with minimum com-
pression.
The DigiMax is also a removable drive
that comes with a mounting kit, or Nest.
Once you install the Nest in a 5.25-inch
drive bay, you can slide the drive in or out
of the bay to move it from system to sys-
tem. Additional Nest bays should cost less
than $100 each.
Eagle sees the real future of this drive
in video storage. It believes that the next
few years will see video e-mail become
popular both in the office and for per-
sonal use. If that happens, storage needs
will go through the roof, and the Digi-
Max will be ready as an inexpensive,
high-capacity drive that can record and
play video directly to and from tape.
Video playback quality from the unit we
tested was nearly flawless, with no no-
ticeable breaks.
Eagle has high hopes for subsequent
iterations of the DigiMax as well. Even-
tually, it may serve as a VCR for a TV or
the much-discussed combination
PC/TV — for taping TV shows, browsing
through downloaded Internet files on a
Web TV, and even downloading pay-per-
view movies.
With its ability to store video eco-
nomically and deliver it smoothly, the
Eagle DigiMax shows that the repeated
Seagate Direct T ape Access, a software utility, gives
quicker access to tape-based files.
186 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted maienal
lUESDAY
October 8, 1996
Toe Bailg Monitor
350
EIZO NANAO WINS AGAIN!
Editor’s Choice: The
Award That Shapes
industry Thinking
BackTo Back Nod
For Monitor Maker
By Rez 0. Looeliun
MONITOR STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES — It’s an
announcement that is becoming
ail too familiar. EIZO Nanao
Technologies has once again taken
home the coveted Editor’s Choice
Award from PC Magazine.
This sixth award in the past six
years goes to the company’s
FlexScan® TX-C7S 17-inch class
color monitor. It’s an honor that
carries particular significance as it
cites superiority in the judging
category having the toughest
standards.
“The TX-C7S monitor’s image
was especially sharp and clear,
with no detachable faults,” said a
PC Magazine judge.
Not too surprising for EIZO,
though. The company’s monitors
previously earned Editor’s Choice
MAGAZINE
EDITORS’
CHOICE
October 8, 1996
FlexScan TX-C7S
accolades in 1990, 1992, 1993 —
for its FlexScan 9400, F550iW
and FlexScan F340iW monitors —
and last year for its highly regard-
ed HexScan T2-I7TS model.
TX-C7S Lauded as ‘Best of the Best’
ByEZ-Vtawki
MONITOR STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES— Words such
as “unbeatable,” and “top flight,”
have been flying around town
ever since EIZO Nanao’s FlexScan
TX-C7S 17-inch class color mon-
itor walked off with the 1996 PC
Magazine Editor’s Choice Award.
With this key award under its
belt, the FlexScan TX-C7S figures
to be the monitor of choice for
graphics and business profession-
als who demand crisp, true-to-life
colors and stable screen images
This year's big winner: The FlexScan 7X-C75
/ 7-inch class color monitor.
for desktop publishing, 24-bit
imagery, high-end graphics and
multimedia applications.
It's deja wall over again: EIZO Nanao has now
won six Ediwr'sChoice Awards insixyears.
ByhtoraiTbrr
MONITOR STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES— Winning a
PC Magazine Editor’s Choice
Award tells the world of hungry
hardware buyers that you’ve
arrived in a big way.
‘It’s the one aw^ we all dream
about, the one we covet more than
any other,” said N.V.S. Guy of
Silicon Valley’s LuzeiCom.
EIZO Nanao monitors have
earned worldwide recognition
for dependability, cost-effective
performance and pleasing, ergo-
nomic design. In fact. I’m going
to stop writing this story right
now so I can call EIZO Nanao
Technologies at 1-800-800*5202.
Then again, I could get an infor-
mational fax on demand by calling
1 ■800-41 6-FLEX. Either way, like
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InteUiMoiise
A simple touch
makes everything
Close your hand around the new
Microsoft InteiliMouseT Right beneath your
index finger is a raised rubber Wheel.
In Microsoft Word 97 roll the Wheel forward.
You zip up toward the top of your document.
Roll it backward and you zip back toward
the end. Roll it slowly to move just a few
lines at a time. This is how the new
InteiliMouse works with new
Microsoft Office 97 and lots
of other InteiliMouse-
compatible programs
to make getting
your work done
easier.
easier.
Go to Microsoft Excel 97. Press the
CTRL key and push the Wheel forward
or backward. You zoom in closer or
zoom out farther. See how manageable
even a massive spreadsheet becomes.
A final touch.
To scroll through Web pages with
Microsoft Internet Explorer, press
the Wheel once and move the
mouse downward. Your computer
goes into AutoScroll mode.
Automatically, rolling line by line
through your entire document.
Without even lifting a finger.
Copyrighted material
® 1997 Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved. Microsoft and Whert do you want to go today? are registered trademarks and IntetiiMouse is a Uademark of Microsoft Corporation.
LOOKING FORWARD
reports of tape's demise have been great-
ly exaggerated.
CHEITAH HARD DISK SFINS FASTIR
Most 3.S-inch desktop hard disks spin at a
stately 4,500 or 5,400 rpm. High-perfor-
mance drives for server and video applica-
tions top out at 7,200 rpm. Seagate Tech-
nology’s new 4.5GB Cheetah 4LP boosts
performance to a
dizzying 10,000
rpm. Expect to see
Cheetah drives
appearing in serv-
er configurations
this spring; future
iterations should
find their way into
high-end PCs.
Ultimately,
hard disk performance depends on access
lime (how quickly a drive’s head can get
to the desired data track and sector) and
throughput (how fast it can siphon off the
data and pass it along). The drive’s rota-
tion rate affects both.
To increase access time you want to
lessen a drive’s latency — the time it takes
to move along the track to reach the file.
Seagate claims an average latency of just
3 ms (milliseconds) for the Cheetah, ver-
sus 4.2 ms for the best 7,200-rpm drives,
and a total average access time of 7.5 ms
(versus 8.5 ms). The bottleneck in
throughput is usually how many bits the
head can read, based on how many it pass-
es over in a given amount of time. The
faster you spin the disk, the more bits can
be read,
Seagate claims a throughput of 1 1 to
16.8 MBps (megabytes per second) for
the Fast-20 SCSI Cheetah. The drive will
also come in 8-bit Fast-20 and Fiber
Channel versions.
If nothing else, the Cheetah series
demonstrates that the performance of
traditional hard disks can continue to
improve,
INTIL’S UL1RA-MINI SOUITION
If you have any doubts whether storage
can get any smaller, you need only take a
look at the Intel Series 100 Flash Memory
Miniature Card (MC). which has about ten
manufacturers besides Intel committed to
producing more of the same. This new
choice in miniaturized storage is about the
size of a matchbook (the street price
should be about $45 for a 2MB cartridge,
$75 for 4MB).
Today’s MCs are meant to provide an
easy route to merging computers with
such consumer electronics as cameras and
audio recorders. With the Konica Q-EZ
digital camera we tested, for example, the
MC makes moving images from camera
to PC a snap — or
series of snaps.
Snap the MC out
of the camera,
snap it into a PC
Card adapter, and
plug the adapter
into a PC Card
slot. Your PC sees
the MC as a drive,
so you can open.
edit, and print the files.
You can do much the same with audio,
using an MC to replace tape. Dictaphone.
Grundig. Olympus, and Philips are all de-
veloping MC recorders, according to
Intel. Other strong candidates for using
MC cards include Web TVs, cellular
phones, global positioning systems, hand-
held games, and handheld PCs.
In addition to 2MB and 4MB capaci-
ties, Intel expects to offer SMB and
16MB MCs this year, with the specifica-
tion allowing up to 64MB in this com-
pact size. The current 4MB capacity is
enough to hold 20 compressed digital
camera images (at 640-by-480 resolu-
tion) or about 30 minutes of audio.
Finally, note that MC is one of several
competing formats for miniaturized stor-
age. SanDisk and Toshiba are introducing
similar cards based on different standards,
and Iomega is developing a 20MB minia-
ture cartridge called n-hand. which should
cost just 50 cents per megabyte. It’s an
open question whether these will all sur-
vive or whether one will wind up as the ul-
timate winner.
TOSHIRA SPINS UP DVD
DVD seems finally ready to get moving.
Toshiba America Information Systems
likewise is ready with its Toshiba SD-M1002.
which should be available in new PC sys-
tems by the time you read this. The cost to
PC manufacturers starts at $350. which
means end users should expect a $400 to
$600 price premium on a PC configured
with this drive in lieu of a standard CD-
ROM drive.
For this roundup, Toshiba provided a
preproduction unit. Granted that DVD-
ROMs are an evolutionary step up from
CD-ROMs, it’s physically similar to a
CD-ROM drive. It fits in a half-height
5.25-inch bay, uses an ATAPl interface,
and holds the disk in a slide-out drawer.
DVD-ROM disks can hold 4.7GB of
data per side and eventually will house
8.5GB per side with dual layers. The first
crop of DVD-ROM disks will use just the
4.7GB format. But the SD-M1002 (and all
announced first-generation DVD-ROM
drives) will read the 8.5GB format as well,
plus standard CD-ROMs and audio CDs,
Toshiba points out, however, that these
first-generation DVD drives will not read
Photo-CDs or CD-R disks — an inconve-
nient restriction. Buyers may want to con-
figure new PCs with both DVD drive
megabyte and CD drives.
In DVD mode. Toshiba reports that
the SD-M1002 delivers a sustained
throughput of 1.350 KBps (kilobytes per
second) and a 220-ms average access
time. We don’t yet have DVD-based per-
formance tests, but we were able to test
the drive’s performance with traditional
CD-ROMs. On the WinBench Sequen-
tial Read test for CD-ROM throughput,
we clocked the SD-M 1 002 at 1 ,2 1 OK per
second (KBps) sustained throughput —
better than the 1.200 KBps claimed for
the drive in CD-ROM mode. Average ac-
cess time was 156 ms rather than the
claimed 120 ms (but keep in mind that
this was a preproduction unit). All told,
the SD-M 1002 does what it promises. It
moves DVD one step closer to being part
of your future. □
MARI H 2S. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 189
LOOKING FORWARD
FLTT!
EDTIOnWME
Intelligent software will
personalize the Web and
make it work for you.
By Richard V. Drayan
Sure, the truth is
out there, but on
the Internet, it's
hard to find. With
millions of Web
pages, getting what
you want is now more difficult than ever.
For users baffled by information over-
load, the Web has become more than a lit-
tle anonymous. The solution to this prob-
lem may lie with agents, which have the
potential to transform the nature of Web
surfing and make it a more personal, pro-
ductive, and lucrative enterprise
for users and vendors.
As agents come of age, you
can expect highly personalized
content for entertainment, news,
products, and other links to ap-
pear automatically on your fa-
vorite Web sites. This personaliz-
ing will happen behind-the-scenes
using agents.
Sophisticated agents can learn on their
own by following your example. They can
watch how you browse during a session
and discover what you might be interest-
ed in, tailoring their behavior according-
ly-
Searching for plane tickets, a stock
bargain, or a good book? As commercial
agents appear, they'll be able to hunt
down just what you want. If properly au-
thorized, they'll even place orders and
charge your credit card for you.
Agent development is being driven by
INSIDE
AUTONOMY
ACtHTWARt
EXCITE
NEWSnUCKEII
HREftYTECHNOlOCY
LIVE AGENT
THE AGENTS OFTHE
nmiRE
a number of aggressive start-up compa-
nies and backed up by leading-edge aca-
demic research in computer science. The
world of agents is clearly heating up.
The term agent has been used in com-
puter science for more than a decade
now, and it means a lot of different things
to a lot of intelligent people. In its sim-
plest form, an agent is a piece of software
that does something for you. But by this
definition, wizards, assistants, and even
spell-checkers could be called agents.
You expect agents to automate repet-
itive tasks. On the Internet, agents were
first used to catalog millions of pages of
content. Search engines such as Lycos
used spider agents to handle the tedious
task of searching the entire Web.
Now that we have search engines pro-
ducing hundreds of hits for almost any
conceivable query, the problem is know-
ing what users are really interested in.
This is where the agents of the
present and very near future will
make the greatest impact. Per-
sonalized content — delivering just
what you want — is the goal of
many of the agent technologies
considered here, and many strate-
gies exist for trying to provide it.
Agents are somewhat indebt-
ed to certain technologies from
the 1980s that never caught on. Such
technologies — namely, artificial intelli-
gence (AI) and expert systems — failed to
live up to high expectations.
The next generation of applied re-
search — in the form of agents — has a
greater likelihood of success, because it
involves new models of computer “intel-
ligence.” New technologies such as col-
iaborative filtering (developed by Firefly
and Net Perceptions) offer a productive
model that fits within an extraordinary
range of consumer tastes. Your interest
in media (such as books and CDs) or con-
tent (such as news stories) can be ascer-
tained with collaborative filtering.
Where the older AI technology tried
to make computers think like people
(which had only limited success), collab-
orative filtering applies human thought —
a database of user preferences — to new
items with extraordinary powers of pre-
diction. This consumer-centered ap-
proach is a hit with many Webmasters
and has obvious applications for catalog
and content-based sites.
Traditional AI approaches are still
available, too. Several agent products use
research in areas you've possibly never
heard of. such as neural networks, fuzzy
logic, natural-language processing, and
collaborative filtering. For example, to
accomplish pattern recognition and visu-
al processing, agents might use neural
networks, which in turn use parallel pro-
cessing (one of the staples of cognitive
science and AI).
Meanwhile, fuzzy logic supplies com-
puters with sufficient data to codify fine
distinctions that people make all the time
(such as the concept of “warm” rather
than "hot” or “cold”). Natural-language
processing allows computers to operate
using English-like statements instead of
arcane programmer-oriented language.
Autonomy's client-side program uses
natural-language queries to learn the in-
formation you want.
ANCHOMD VS. MOMU ASINTS
You can classify agents into two groups
based on where they reside and where
they do their work. Anchored agents do
most of their work on either the client
side or on the server side. The client util-
ities from AgentSoft and Autonomy are
two examples of this approach. These
programs run alongside your browser
190 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted maenal
LOOKING FORWARD
and automate browser sessions.
Of course, these clients still work with
Web servers; that’s where they do their
searching. But they remain more or less
anchored on the client's machine. For
Web pages that make use of agent tech-
nology (such as Firefly), the intelligence
is placed on the server side.
Mobile agents make up the more so-
phisticated group and have the most
promise. These agents, which resemble
some kind of software robot out of sci-
ence fiction, can move themselves from
server to server to find what they need.
They are executing programs that carry
their state information with them, mak-
ing them self-contained.
Today, it’s natural to think of pro-
grams grabbing resources from remote
spots on the Web, but to have a program
jump to another server is a novel idea.
DIALS IN CYBIMPACI
This approach, pioneered by General
Magic and implemented in its proprietary
Telescript programming language, offers
perhaps the most potential for commerce
on the Web. Agents for buyers and sellers
could meet on the Web and actually
make deals in cyberspace. These agents
could search the Internet for a desired
product and price, even ordering the
product automatically by using your
credit card number. Many vendors are
drooling over the prospect of having au-
tonomous agents hunt down bargains.
For this approach to be used over the
public Internet (it’s currently being used
on intranets), standards definitions for
such commerce (principally, security)
need to be implemented. For agents to
work properly, servers of all kinds would
need to be able to run mobile agents safe-
ly and securely.
Without broad support for standards,
there’s no way an agent could move
around from server to server. Neverthe-
less. this vision holds a lot of potential. A
host of useful business applications
awaits, but time will tell if this technology
can become widely accepted.
It has always been true that today’s
science fiction is tomorrow’s fact. You
can expect the line to blur even further as
agent-enhanced Web tools become stan-
dard equipment and standard operating
procedure for us all.
I want
Financial data
No. I only
want NASDAQ
Then you
might like
Wagner.
I like Nirvana
and Mozart.
Then you
might like
Mozart.
Intelligent Software
Here are
NYSE reports,
OK. Here are
NASDAQ reports,
A simple agent intended to deliver you relevant information may begin with
basic data you provide. It then can refine its understanding of what you’re
looking for by analyzing your feedback.
I like Wagner
and Kurt Cobain. ^
Collaborative filtering analyzes information from multiple users. Its algo-
rithms can interpret an individual profile within the context of a group, so
they can refine the delivery of targeted information to one person.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 191
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING AGENT SOFTWARE
TAMING THE WILD, WILD WED
Vendors rush to market with sophisticated and powerful network agents that are easy
to use and eager to please. By Richard V. Drayan and Andrew Boscardin
T he Web is an obvious place for
agent technology to develop. All
those sites. All that information.
But users have only so much time — and
patience — for browsing. It's interesting
to see the different ways in which the
technology is being implemented — from
a personalized agent that reacts to your
choices to customizing news delivery to
applying the idea that groups of people
who all like one thing will probably have
other things in common. Each one is ef-
fective and hints at where agents may be
headed next.
•I ^ jij *ji
1
AgcntWare’s agents do searches for you using English-like
statements.
AN ACCOMMODATINO AOINT
A playful, easy-to-use interface masks so-
phisticated agent technology in Autonomy
Inc.’s AgentWarel.0 ($49.95 list). This pow-
erful client-side agent tool provides an ap-
pealing and useful demonstration of what
agents are capable of doing. Using neural
networks, fuzzy logic, and natural-lan-
guage processing, this standalone program
offers considerable power for automating
Web searches you’ll run again and again.
AgentWare’s interface is geared to-
ward users of all levels. Agents are rep-
resented on the desktop by friendly-
looking dog icons. The program includes
about 40 predefined agents that cover
diverse topics such as entertainment,
politics, and science.
192 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1W7
Creating a new agent is easy. You
name your agent and use natural-lan-
guage queries to describe what you’re
looking for. You sift through the results
and tell your agent whether they match
with what you had in mind. AgentWare
then refines its search based on your
feedback. On our testing, we found that
AgentWare’s learning capability wasn’t
always perfect, but it did manage to nar-
row our searches most of the time.
You search the Web by dragging one
of your agents onto the Web icon. This
calls up the Web Researcher, which
shows you the progress of a
search as it works its way
through the Web. Once you get
your results, you can display
them in a variety of browsers,
including Netscape Navigator
2.0 and 3.0 and Microsoft Inter-
net Explorer 3.0.
Search results can then be
added to the Autonomy li-
brary, which serves as a scrap-
book of Web pages. You can
1,^1 also search this archive using
such natural-language ques-
tions as “Show me all the arti-
cles about football.”
AgentWare comes with the
AgentWare Press Agent. This feature al-
lows you to use a selected agent to search
the Web sites of roughly 40
newspapers and magazines.
This can speed up a search con-
siderably if you’re interested in
locating specific articles rather
than just any Web pages.
The kennel feature is one of
AgentWare’s most powerful
features. You can tell an agent
to begin searching a kennel and
then go off-line, This way, you
don’t have to watch as the
search progresses, which can
sometimes be a tedious process.
The actual search is conducted
at one of Autonomy’s Agent-
Ware-enabled servers. Results can be re-
trieved and viewed at a later time. This
feature seems to be exactly what you
would want from an agent.
With its intuitive interface and natural-
language abilities. Autonomy's Agent-
Ware appears to have gained an excellent
foothold in the world of agents. It stands
as a highly useful and intriguing agent tool.
NEWS AT TOUR FINeERTIPS
Customizable news is one of the fastest
growing services available on the Inter-
net. Instead of relying purely on prede-
fined categories and keyword searches to
sort through the news wires. Excite Inc.’s
NewsTracker (free) uses a personal agent
to sort through the volumes of periodicals
currently on the Web. Though it’s one of
the simpler examples of agent technolo-
gy, NewsTracker does bring you news
from more than 300 Web periodicals.
To use NewsTracker. you’ll need a free
Excite Live! account. Once you've created
your personal page, simply click on News
Tracker and configure your agent. You
can add news and article topics from the
list provided or create your own from key-
words. A topic can be customized at any
time by adding or removing keywords.
Once the agent is set up, it will search
for your keywords in its database, sorting
the results by keyword frequency. After
you've read your retrieved articles, you
can teach the agent which items you liked
by clicking a check box. Your feedback is
then used to narrow the next search.
Although the rating system is some-
what limited, the site does a good job of
filtering out unwanted information sim-
When you indicate whether you liked an article retrieved for
you, NewsT racker refines your query to deliver better results.
Copyrighted material
Whatever you’re creating on-screen. Philips Brilliance monitors will bring
out the best in you. The pixel perfect display offers you incredibly high
resolution, color accuracy, contrast and consistency right across
the range. They’re available in 15". I7”and 21"
sizes (13.7", 15.9", 19.9" VIS'), which means that
whether you’re a design professional, office or
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LOOKING FORWARD
*««4rk(n
J awt B—w iTw DTfw ’. ri (IMS ^
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II II mil
Firefly’s agents will guess what you like based on the prefer-
ences of other users with similar interests.
ply by pushing more desirable links to the
top. At press time, Excite was preparing
to launch a revamped version of News
Tracker that should be online by the time
you read this. With Excite’s impressive
database of URLs behind it, NewsTrack-
er is a reliable way of making sure the
news you want is right at your fingertips.
COUABORAHVl FIUIIUNG
Looking to buy a new music CD or rent a
video? Firefly Network’s Firefly Technolo-
gy (free) can probably help — check out
this server-based technology at Firefly's
Web site (www.firefly.com). Using col-
laborative filtering. Firefly can accurate-
ly predict what music or movies you
might enjoy by comparing your tastes
with those of nearly a million users. Be-
sides providing a useful service for con-
sumers, Firefly Technology may be in-
strumental in developing agents that help
us make online purchasing decisions.
Firefly’s collaborative-filtering tech-
nology, which was developed at MIT’s
Media Lab, allows computers to learn
based upon a community of users. Tradi-
tional models of machine learn-
ing, such as neural networks, do
not factor in this social element.
Community is not just a slogan
at Firefly: It is the foundation
for a powerful algorithm that
filters users’ preferences based
on other users with similar in-
terests.
Taste is subjective, but if you
try Firefly out you’ll probably
be surprised at its accuracy. It is
a very user-friendly Web site
that claims many loyal mem-
bers. Membership is free, and
once you create an alias and
password you’ll be able to rate
your favorite music and movies.
Firefly has also licensed its technology
to other Web sites. You can use Firefly to
find software at the ZDNet site
(www.zdnet.com) and Web sites if you
use Yahoo’s customizable news service.
My Yahoo! (my.yahoo.com). Reuters
New Media has also licensed Firefly
Technology for filtering news stories to
users. Firefly’s technology can be used
anywhere consumers make choices — the
implications for advertising and catalog
applications are obvious.
Firefly is developing a client-side util-
ity that will enable its technology to work
with the browser-enabled desktops of the
near future (such as Microsoft Ac-
tiveDesktop). It’s also packaging its tech-
nology in server-side tools so that more
Web sites can take direct advantage of its
Building the Agents of the Future
G eneral Magic's vision for
agents is more ambitious
than most. With its Telescript
programming language and
Tabriz AgentWare for Windows
NT 1.0 development toolkit
(still in beta), it hopes to bring
about a world where mobile
agents conduct real com-
merce on the Internet.
Understanding what a mobile
agent is involves understanding
the notion of an executing
software module (written in
Telescript, a pioneering program-
ming language used for creating
agents) and the notion of place.
A place is where an agent runs; it
could be a Telescript-enabled
server, a browser client, or even a
wireless hand-held device such
as a pager. Mobile agents are
special because they are self-
contained. As they move around
the Internet, they carry along
their state information (every-
thing they need to run). Once
they find an answer— such as a
product for sale sold by another
agent— they can report back to
the original client or server,
Conducting business on the
Internet might
involve buyer and
seller agents. These
could seek each
other out in cyber-
space and then
charge your credit
card once the right
product and price
have been found.
Agents may also play
a strong future role in
PDA and cellular
technology. They
could help overcome
the limited interfaces of hand-
held devices and assist in deliver-
ing voice mail, e-mail, or even
Internet content.
Security obviously becomes an
Issue under this scenario. Agents
are designed never to become
worms (malevolent, self-replicat-
ing programs) because they work
inside the confines of the Tele-
script virtual machine. Also, they
can only run on Telescript-
enabled servers (Java is prevented
from causing problems for Java
clients in much the same way).
The Tabriz development
environment provides tools that
let developers work with the
hundreds of objects found in the
Telescript library. Apart from
handling security, there are
objects to manage Telescript-to-
Web and Web-to-
Telescript transactions.
Future plans for the
product may include a
COM interface to
Telescript objects and
Java support, but this is
not yet final. In the
meantime. Telescript
provides some signifi-
cant agent technology,
and it is being imple-
mented on intranets
for several Fortune 500
companies.
General Magic's Tabriz/
Telescript technology will play
a significant role as mobile
agents come into their own on
the Web.-RV'D
U »>• s*
Tabriz and the Telescript programming language com-
bine to build agents for a variety of tasks.
194 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
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LOOKING FORWARD
approach. The initial release of server
tools will be in C++ and Unix, with Java
and ActiveX support to follow. The tech-
nology will be as open as possible, and it
will work on a wide variety of client and
server platforms.
With its intuitive, powerful, and flexi-
ble agent technology. Firefly has created a
useful, entertaining Web site. You can ex-
pect Firefly’s model of agents to generate
plenty of interest as commerce on the In-
ternet takes off. (Softbank, the parent
company of both PC Magazine and Ziff-
Davis Publishing, is an investor in Firefly.)
DmCTINC A MTTIIIN
You can automate some of your Web
browsing and searching tasks with
AgentSoft's UveAgentl.1. The beta version
is downloadable for free, and the final re-
lease version is expected to sell for around
$40. Its innovative features provide a com-
pelling look at today's agent technology.
LiveAgent adds a separate frame in-
terface with several buttons to your
Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Inter-
net Explorer browser window to help you
better manage your Web tasks. You can
start the recorder to save any sequence of
browsing operations. Each step during
the process, LiveAgent will ask you
whether your action is something that
should be automated (such as entering a
user name and password for a log-on
screen) or whether your actions are vari-
ables. It records your steps much as you
would when creating a macro.
If you designate any value as a vari-
able, you can change that entry when the
agent is played back. For example, you
can use this feature to obtain a stock
quote based on a company’s stock sym-
bol, Then you can change the company
each time you run that agent.
The program’s agents run using Java
and JavaScript, making them an interest-
ing demonstration of the powers of Java.
Once you record agents, you can manage
them using the Agent Filer feature. This
tool allows you to run any agent and write
its results to a report using HTML. (As
you browse pages, the gathered informa-
tion is saved to HTML.) Although the in-
terface takes some getting used to, it is
clear that the basic record and reuse
model of building agents can be a real
time-saver.
196 PC MAGAZINE MARCH’S. IW7
-Mil l
■rmi
UvcAgent’s S«archAgent gathers the results of multiple
search engines and eliminates duplicates.
LiveAgent also comes bundled with
SearchAgent l.O, a metasearching tool
that offers many rich customization fea-
tures. SearchAgent lets you automate
queries on such major search engines as
Excite, HotBot, and Yahoo! The match-
ing results are then placed in HTML files.
You also can control the sorting and fil-
tering of the initial results. SearchAgent
will apply the search rules you set for your
query more reliably than the search en-
gines do. For example, it will eliminate
“John OR Smith” results that
are usually retrieved with “John
AND Smith” results. You can
also specify the maximum num-
ber of matches or time spent
searching. SearchAgent collates
the results from multiple search
engines and eliminates dupli-
cates. In the beta version, per-
formance on very large searches
was somewhat sluggish during
our testing (this is probably at-
tributable to Java). You’ll do
better if you use only a few
search engines at a time.
AgentSoft also provides a
developer’s toolkit for creating
server- and client-side agent applications
in LiveAgent Pro. This product includes
Java libraries and source codes to help get
developers going with agent-centered ap-
plications. You can also experience
LiveAgent in sister company Accent Soft-
ware’s WebTamer. an off-line browser.
With its innovative use of Java,
JavaScript, and underlying agent tech-
nology, AgentSoft enters the competition
armed with a useful agent tool. It bears
watching as this market matures. O
Perceiving Filtering's Next Direction
C oming soon to a
Web site near you:
Adaptive Prediction
technology from Net
Perceptions Inc. and Its
povi^erful Group-Lens
TooUdtLO [$47,500 per
server), it is available only
for Sun Solaris, but it can
run on any Web server.
Based on Innovative
collaborative-filtering
research. Group Lens
Toolkit can bring this
predictive technology to
any Web site.
Collaborative filtering
predicts vrhat products or
items you might like based
on the preferences of
similar users. This process
requires you to fill out
preference forms. Group-
Lens Toolkit also includes
tools to alloNv Web sites to
guess your preferences
Implicitly. The length of
time you spend looking at a
page can measure what you
like. Suppose you're shop-
ping at a virtual store and
place items in a shopping
basket. Even if you don’t
buy all the items, you've still
expressed a choice. Group-
Lens Toolkit includes tools
to record these user prefer-
ences and factor them Into
the collaborative-filtering
process. The Toolkit can
also gauge how accurately a
site has been measuring user
preferences by applying
both explicit and implicit
rating styles.
These tools take advan-
tage of some cutting edge
research in the field of
collaborative filtering based
on signal-detection theory ■]
research. This allows Web-
masters to strike a balance
between explicit and
implicit styles so that a site
can be convenient for users
and still accurately guess
what they want.
Amazon.com (an onlir>e •
bookstore). StarWave (a
content provider for enter-
tainment). and Sabre (a
provider of travel-industry
services) have licensed this
technology. [We previewed
a demo site, which showed
the Toolkit at work.)
Adaptive Prediction
technology clearly points
toward a future where you
can train a Web site to give
you personalized content
based on your actions.
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LOOKING FORWARD
p ITI IR
DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
Bandwidth and standards
will make good on years
of networking promises.
By Larry Seltzer
For many of us. au-
tomated teller ma-
chines (ATMs) are
a way of life. It's
hard to remember
that you used to
have to go to a centrally located bank to
get cash or do other banking. Now you
can use one of these little machines al-
most anywhere, anytime. You don't think
about the system behind it the same way
you don't think about the systems behind
PCs and networks.
ATMs are a good example of distrib-
uted computing (in which different parts
of an operation run on widely dispersed
computers connected over a network).
The computer in the ATM you happen to
be using, the ATM's home bank, the
ATM network, your personal bank, and
(potentially) other systems are all in-
volved in the transactions you engage
in — and they're all connected.
Most distributed applieations (such as
those for ATMs) have been proprietary.
Only recently have such applications
come within reach of conventional PCs
and their operating systems. But wide-
spread networking (ever hear of the In-
ternet?) makes it likely that distributed
computing will become a standard prac-
tice among PCs — especially servers —
over the next 15 years. We'll be able to
conduct more and more personal and pro-
fessional business from more convenient
locations — even our homes.
198 PCMA(iAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
From the development end, it may be-
come practical and easy to write distrib-
uted programs for PCs. In addition, wide-
spread distributed computing should
allow for more efficient use of computers
on a network by moving tasks to systems
with available bandwidth.
Distributed computing requires sev-
eral pieces to succeed: The computers
need to communicate with each other,
traffic rules need to be enforced (that is.
determining what goes first, what goes
second, what happens if something fails,
and so on), and the computers need to
find each other. In recent years. we*ve
seen open standards emerge for develop-
ing powerful distributed applications.
Among these are standards for distrib-
uted objects, transaction processing, and
direclorv services.
DISTMBUTED OBJiCTS
Above the basic network transport layer,
the most fundamental layer for
distributed processing is the one
in which programs call each
other. For some years now. we've
had standards for these remote
procedure calls (RPCs). especial-
ly the Open Group’s Distributed
Computing Environment DCE
RPC, which permits remote calls in a gen-
eral-purpose. cross-platform manner.
Many distributed systems do not support
or use them.
Object orientation, which attempts to
simplify things by enveloping computing
complexities into functional objects, is
better than RPCs for distributing applica-
tions. And the more complex the service
being distributed, the better it is to use ob-
ject technology. Several important stan-
dards already exist in this area, and they
interoperate to a certain extent. Their ar-
chitectures are converging sufficiently, so
INSIDi
OBJKT-OIUDITED
C0MWTW6
TRAHSACnON
ntOCESSES
ORSaOtY
SERVICES
increasingly powerful interoperability is
likely in the future.
TRANSACTION PROCESSING
Distributed computing requires the oper-
ations on various computers to be depen-
dent on one another. Consider a credit
card transaction: If the debit from your
account fails on your credit card issuer’s
computer, it would be a bad idea to credit
the store's computer. Either the whole
thing succeeds or the whole thing fails.
Transaction processing has its origins
in database technology, where it is used
for sets of dependent operations. A good
transaction-processing system also pro-
vides a mechanism for simplifying the de-
velopment of complex programs.
DIRICTORV SERVICES
Directory services come into play when
you need to find all of those network de-
vices out there. Directory services stan-
dardize the way we organize such
devices, especially in the context
of security.
Security is a big issue when
you're allowing users to access
devices across a network. Ad-
ministrators need a measure of
control and audit authority over
access to those devices, and directory
services are designed to associate securi-
ty to devices (such as users or servers)
on a network.
THE FUTURE
In 15 years, many of the cost and capability
constraints on today's computing will disap-
pear. Consider that 15 years ago the typical
PC had an 8088 processor and maybe 256K
of RAM. Networking was virtually unheard
of. If advances in power over the next 15
years are at least as great, we'll all be run-
ning powerful PCs with hundreds of
Copyrighted material ,
LOOKING FORWARD
R6in0t6 Fil0 SyStCni trlbuted platform. Clients can request server- Typical objects include HTML pages, graphics,
Essentially a remote file system, the Web is an based objeas through HTTP. These objects script, and Java code. Extensions to the system
example of a simple but highly effeaive dis- download and then execute on the client. allow streams of multimedia data.
DiSrlbUt6d 0bj6CtS complex distributed applications. Program interfaces. The operating system and the
Distributed object models such as DCOM and components can communicate with other network plumbing that connects them are
CORBA/liOP are the backbone for today's components remotely through standardized hidden from the programmer and end user.
MOVIII 9 Objects behalf, carrying their data and state with search for data— which could be anything from
In the future, distributed objects may actually This technology would make possible an arbitrage opportunity to a buyer and seller
move themselves arournl over the Internet on classes of applications that would actively for a vintage car.
megabytes or more of RAM. Greater
power facilitates distributed computing be-
cause it increases the power of servers to
handle large numbers of remote users.
We can also anticipate vast improve-
ments in network bandwidth. In networks,
fiber-optic cable will be the common carri-
er of data, bringing with it multigigabit
data rates. The speed and capacity of the
network infrastructure hardware will im-
prove as well. We may even break the mo-
nopolies on the local loop for phone ser-
vice by then, and numerous high-speed
data options will be available for homes.
Such a world would be ideal for dis-
tributed computing. You'll be able to
move large amounts of code and data
across the network for even ordinary
tasks. This would facilitate load balanc-
ing. since programs could move them-
selves to the most available computer.
In a directory service of the future, users
might view objects situated across the entire
Internet and customize the view to their
needs. In a truly distributed world, directo-
ry services will run the appropriate device,
whether it's local or on another system. You
can think of this as location independence.
We can also expect more reliability
from the whole infrastructure of the In-
ternet and private networks. When both
are reliable (and when all the security and
performance enhancements are made),
major companies will shut down their pri-
vate wide-area networks and move their
traffic onto the Internet, buying connec-
tions on the network-bandwidth com-
modity market. When vendors and cus-
tomers finally have enough confidence in
such a public network, we will find nu-
merous Holy Grails of computing, such as
public, open EDI networks.
MARCH 2,S. I W PC MAGAZINE 199
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
PC SIZE, MAINFRAME POWER
Despite competing approaches, the latest trends in distributed objects and naming ser-
vices are empowering PC networks. By uny Seitzer
I BM, Microsoft, and Netscape have
staked much of their Internet futures
on distributed object models. Distrib-
uted objects are not the ones program-
mers deal with regularly. Objects in the
Distributed Common Object Model
(DCOM) or the Object Management Ar-
chitecture (OMA) exist at the system
level. Objects elsewhere in the system and
elsewhere on the network can interact
with them as objects. They may be able to
query their capabilities or inherit them for
their own use. System objects such as
OMA and DCOM can also be written in
almost any language.
DllTMBimD COMMON OIJICT MONL
DCOM is the distributed version of COM.
the object model behind OLE and Active
X. This object model is imple-
mented in Windows and is com-
ing for the Macintosh and Unix.
Although COM benefits
from strong development tools,
writing a good program with
COM and DCOM can still be
difficult. A high-performance
server object, for example,
needs to be cognizant of arcane
threading models. Microsoft's
Transaction Server offers a solu-
tion here.
The programming model
for DCOM is identical to that
of COM. but it can take some
work to port COM programs
to DCOM. DCOM has an ad-
vantage over OMA and
CORBA (Common Object
Request Broker Architec-
ture) in the area of interoperability, be-
cause it is a more rigidly defined stan-
dard. Because you know that a COM
object will work on an implementation
of COM, an open market already exists
for COM objects. This is unlikely to hap-
pen with CORBA objects, because they
tend to be ORB-specific. DCOM also
works over connectionless protocols
200 pc MAGAZINE MARCH 25. IW
(such as UDP and IPX). OMA does not
use these protocols.
OBJECT MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTUM
The Object Management Group's OMA
is often called CORBA, even though
CORBA is only part of the larger OMA.
The OMA encompasses the Internet In-
teroperability Protocol (HOP) and other
related services.
Vendors implement CORBA on many
platforms, including IBM's SOMobjects
(one is coming from Netscape). Most of
CORBA's architecture is like DCOM's,
but CORBA adds a new layer: the Inter-
face Definition Language (IDL). The
IDL defines the interface of the object
separate from its implementation. Devel-
opers compile the IDL into interface
code, which connects to the object broker
and implementation code on both sys-
tems. This code can be written in almost
any language, and the data type mappings
between the implementation code and
IDL are part of the OMA standard.
Only with the release of HOP have dif-
ferent CORBA object brokers had a com-
mon wire-level protocol. Even with HOP,
proprietary extensions are a necessity of
CORBA development, and they make it
difficult to port objects or have them in-
teroperate with those on other platforms.
Despite these problems, OMA is a rich
architecture with many powerful vendors
behind it.
DUTRIBUTIO JAVA PROGRAMMING
Two services are available for writing dis-
tributed applications in Java. Version 1.1
of Java Development Kit (likely shipping
by the time you read this) features both a
CORBA-compliant IDL facility and a na-
tive Java remote method invocation
(RMI) facility. Most Java programmers
will access these facilities indirectly
through JavaBeans, a component soft-
ware specification.
Java IDL is an IDL compiler that al-
lows you to map Java objects to CORBA
object brokers. Thus you can interoperate
with objects written in other languages
and possibly running on other systems. A
developer must follow a protocol for nam-
ing CORBA objects inside Java and vice-
versa. This makes it easier to integrate a
Java system with legacy code,
which likely isn't written in
Java. Performance should im-
prove as well.
RMI works only between
Java programs running on dif-
ferent systems. RMI usage isn’t
seamless: You must declare re-
mote classes explicitly and per-
form other rituals to ensure im-
plementation. By default, RMI
works directly on Java's own
sockets interface. Although this
will let you implement your sys-
tem on any Java system, it keeps
communication outside of any
other security and distribution
facilities you have. But RMI
does let you take advantage of
Java's security features, includ-
ing the sandbox, multithreading,
and garbage collection. Moving RMI pro-
grams around to any system using a Java
virtual machine (VM) should be easy.
TRANSACTION PROCESSU
Consider a credit card purchase: The
debit from your account and the credit
given to the vendor is a good example of
a transaction. If your purchase isn't ap-
DCOM (Windows NT)
DCOM insulates objects from underlying transport issues.
Local out'of-process call Remote call
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Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
Transaction Processes
The retailer’s bank approves the credit, 4 . The transaction server must now roll
but the customer’s bank rejects the debit. back the credit to the retailer’s bank.
proved, the bank won’t credit the retail-
er’s account. A transaction is a series of
operations that a programmer desig-
nates as a logical group. If any of them
fails, then you don’t want any of them to
execute.
Server and host processes comply with
standards for letting such systems work
correctly, including the X/Open XA ar-
chitecture and part of IBM’s LU 6.2 spec-
ification. A programmer begins a transac-
tion, designates the operations, and (if no
servers complain) performs a commit. If a
problem arises with any operation, the
program performs a rollback. This is
called a two-phase commit, and a transac-
tion-processing (TP) system manages it.
In our credit card example, if either your
debit or the store’s credit fails, the TP sys-
tem should roll back the other.
Distributed systems represent fragile op-
erations. While well-designed distributed
operations rarely involve more than three
different systems, the number of potential
points of failure is much greater than on a
single system. Also consider that distributed
objects are client and server processes. Such
factors make it complicated to design a
high-performance server object.
For many years now, mission-critical
enterprise mainframe systems have em-
ployed expensive proprietary TP moni-
tors to govern such operations. With high-
performance server operating systems,
new standards in network communica-
tions, better development tools, and the
ability to distribute object models on
which to build TP systems, mainstream
PCs can now handle what was once prac-
tical only on mainframes.
■■M TKANSACnON SIRVIR
The mother of all online transaction pro-
cessing (OLTP) systems is IBM’s Cus-
tomer Information Control System
(CICS). Although CICS has been run
mainly on mainframes. IBM has ported it
to Windows NT, OS/2, and AIX as part of
the company’s Transaction Server. CICS
was written back in the late 1960s to run in
environments so slow and so resource-
constrained that they seem impossible
these days. (Imagine mainframes with
I28K of RAM.) CICS earned a reputa-
tion on mainframes for the highest relia-
bility and scalability.
On the newer platforms, such as Win-
dows NT, CICS is built on top of the
Encina transaction monitor. The two,
along with client software, form IBM’s
Transaction Server. Encina removes de-
tails of the file and communications sub-
systems from CICS, making both CICS
and applications easier to move between
platforms. It also emulates some main-
frame services, such as the VSAM file
system, and connects to databases such as
MS SQL Server and IBM’s Database
Server. Encina is built on top of OSF’s
DCE Services, including RPC and DCE
security, which it can use in addition to
conventional CICS security. Lastly, Enci-
na can tie any XA-compliant process into
the transaction system.
Application programmers can write to
CICS APIs, usually writing in COBOL
using the standard CICS APIs. IBM’s
Transaction Server does not provide a full
implementation of those APIs, but the
missing parts are esoteric.
There are several ways to program
CICS under Transaction Server. ECI (Ex-
tended Call Interface) is a standard call-
level interface for high-level languages.
And although EPI (External Presentation
Interface) is geared toward terminal com-
munications, applications can use this in-
terface for "screen-scraping" the I/O to
present it in other media. For example.
CICS Internet Gateway uses EPI. turning
3270 applications into HTML programs.
CICS Gateway for Java exposes Java
classes for programming CICS. IBM has
high hopes for it and CICS Internet Gate-
way in terms of exposing enterprise data
to network computers and other Internet-
connected clients. IBM also has CICS
Gateway for Lotus Notes, which exposes
CICS data as a Notes database and lets
programmers manipulate it with Notes
macros and LotusScript.
MICROSOFT TRANSACTION SIRVIR
Microsoft Transaction Server runs on
Windows NT Server 4.0 and uses Ac-
tiveX as its client programming model.
Very little is needed to create a transac-
tion; the process can be accomplished
using drag-and-drop through the user in-
terface rather than an API-based task. A
few COM interfaces are provided for
API-level programming. Transaction
Server talks to XA, LU 6.2, and OLE TX
transaction monitors (OLE TX is a Mi-
crosoft spec).
Transaction Server makes server-
based programming easier. One of the
hardest parts about designing a high-
performance server application is de-
signing its thread and process model cor-
rectly. If you do this badly, the
application will not run well. Threading
models in a COM-based process are es-
202 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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LOOKING FORWARD
pecially complicated.
With Transaction Server, you just de-
sign simple operations as ActiveX com-
ponents in single-user DLLs, and the
server handles all the messy details of
thread and resource management. Be-
cause Transaction Server components are
ActiveX components, which define spe-
cific interfaces. Transaction Server can
call the correct code to commit the work
or roll it back.
MMCTORY SIRVICH
So you've got objects and you’ve got a
network. How do your programs find the
objects with which they need to commu-
nicate? By using a directory service — the
last step necessary in building a distrib-
uted platform.
Current directories consist mainly of
a fairly simple hierarchical database.
Network managers use this database to
store information about users, network
resources, arbitrary objects, and security.
In the long term, the directory service
will be the glue that binds the objects in
the directory to their different roles.
Here’s a look at several important direc-
tory services now on the market. They’ve
come a long way, but they also have a
long way to go.
Domain Name Service (DNS) is the naming
service for the Internet. It’s not really a
directory service, but it performs many
of the functions of one. DNS is slow and
highly static: You can look up names,
and the infrastructure gradually repli-
cates these names throughout the net-
work. The directory basically supports
only the relationships of names
(www.pcmag.com) and IP addresses.
Programs then use these to perform ac-
tual operations. No structure exists to
support security or objects more com-
plex than addresses. This testifies to its
weakness as a standard.
Much enthusiasm has been expressed
recently over the Lightweight Directory Ac-
cess Protocol (LDAP) as an emerging stan-
dard. Indeed, many major vendors
(Netscape and Microsoft included) have
announced or shipped support for it. But
LDAP isn’t a rich directory service; its
principal strength at present is that it’s a
least-common-denominator solution.
Names in an LDAP have various at-
tributes, including organizational units
and a country code. The directory struc-
Directory Services
•haruMM/
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•xc«l .«x«
In a LAN environment users access files off the network using a
directory service such as Novell’s.
D. In a WAN environment LOAP is an effective lookup service. Its
complex directory structure is often hidden by the application
C Over the Internet, the Domain
Name Service (DNS) server
handles addresses but little else
L&art//wm.
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ture isn’t simple, but its complexity
tends to be hidden by the application. Its
implementations rely on proprietary ex-
tensions, which weaken its applicability
as a standard. The Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) is working on future
generations of LDAP to make it
stronger.
Debuted in NetWare 4.0, Netware Direc-
tory Service (NDS) is perhaps the most wide-
ly used directory service on private net-
works. Novell has announced plans to
port the core features of NDS to other
platforms, including many Unix versions
and Windows NT.
One of the strengths of NDS is that its
directories can be "federated" with other
NDS directories while preserving the se-
curity of each site. This means that users
on different networks can have selected
access to each other’s resources. Security
is still managed by administrators of the
individual organizations.
Novell is working on enhancing NDS.
At the same time, it’s also working with
the IETF on future versions of LDAP.
Microsoft has recently announced a
next-generation directory service as well as
a new COM-based system for generic di-
rectory-services programming. The Win-
dows NT Server Directory Services supports a va-
riety of naming schemes, including LDAP,
X.500, URL, UNC (\\myserveA\share-
mme\apps\excehexcel.exe), and RFC822
(better known as Internet e-mail addresses,
such as johns@company .com). Microsoft’s
Directory Services also supports the stor-
age of public key certificates and the ex-
plicit storage of private keys based on the
MIT Kerboros authentication protocol.
Object Management Architecture
(OMA) defines two promising services
for retrieving names from a variety of
providers using standard Common Object
Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)
programming. But they are still works in
progress and are not yet widely used.
The Naming Service associates names
with object references, which you can
then use to perform operations. The Trad-
ing Service is a catalog in which servers can
advertise names and the properties of
those names. The Trading Service sup-
ports lookups for objects based on those
properties. Like NDS, the Naming service
supports the federation of name spaces
within an enterprise. □
204 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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LOOKING FORWARD
FI JT'
USER INnRFACES
Voice and handwriting
be common modes of
man/machine interaction.
By Les Freed
Many things about
PCs have changed
since IBM's first
model rolled out
the door in 1981 —
with one notable
exception. The majority of our computer
interaction still takes place through the
keyboard and screen, just as it did IS
years ago.
The idea of an “alternate user inter-
face" holds an almost irresistible appeal.
Typing is fine for people who are good at
it. but many PC users are poor typists.
And more than a few business profession-
als have never embraced a PC because
they never learned to type.
Two relatively new technologies may
make the keyboard at least optional with-
in a few years — and eventually
maybe even obsolete. Voice (or
speech) recognition — once a
seemingly impossible task for a
PC — is now a reality. And hand-
writing recognition, widely used
on hand-held PDAs such as ■
Apple's MessagePad. has made
strides in the past few years.
Both voice and handwriting recogni-
tion face the same obstacles on the road to
mass acceptance: No two people speak or
write in the same way. Voice and hand-
writing recognition products must analyze
the input they receive, compare it with a
model, and decide what it is we said or
INSIDE
voia
UCOSNinON
HANDWXIT1KC
HECOGNITIOM
huge
language's complexity and the variations
in pronunciation and handwriting styles,
it's a wonder these systems work at all.
TYPING WtTH A PfM
Even at its best, the QWERTY keyboard
is a less-than-ideal input mechanism.
Handwriting recognition systems accept
input written with a stylus — usually an ink-
less plastic or metal penlike device. To
enter text, you write with the stylus on the
recognition device’s surface. This technol-
ogy is now widely deployed on PDAs, be-
cause it permits a smaller, lighter unit; the
screen can double as the input receiver.
But handwriting recognition seems
more ideal for the PDA world than the
desktop: Most of us, even when hunting
and pecking, can still type faster than we
can write. Voice recognition, on the
other hand, is the ideal desktop applica-
tion; just about all of us can speak faster
than we can type.
TAUam TO THI COMPUm
Today, we have discrete speech recogni-
tion systems, and they work very well. But
they can process only a single word at a
time. Continuous-speech systems,
which have the potential to
change the way we work and sig-
nificantly expand the number of
PC users, are currently being
rolled out in vertical markets,
such as radiology. This software
can handle complex, industry-specific
terms (not likely to be confused with oth-
ers) much better than the simple words
we use daily.
What's needed for continuous speech
recognition to enter our everyday lives?
Karl Sahora. president of Philips Speech
Processing USA, believes that the vocab-
ulary needed for general use is around
wrote. When you consider the English 200,000 words and that the processing
206 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
power the desktop requires to handle this
kind of technology must increase signifi-
cantly. Currently, Philips' speech recogni-
tion engine, running on a high-end Win-
dows NT system, handles about 64,000
active words of specific context.
SPfAKER INDEPENDENCE
Continuous speech is only half of voice
recognition's Holy Grail. The other half is
speaker independence.
pleasant
pleasant
^easin,
A. Speech recognition software interprets
your words by comparing them to both a
speech file and a vocabulary of words to
determine a correct match. Speaker-
independent speech systems require a
large database of speech files to deter-
mine your words with higher accuracy.
B« You need to devote significant system
resources to continuous-speech-
recognition systems for nearly instanta-
neous recognition. For today's early
systems, you need a microphone for
input, a sound card, and a high-end
Pentium processor.
C. Continuous speech recognition holds the
promise of increasing our productivity
by letting us dictate and speak com-
mands in a natural voice and have the
computer understand them.
Copyright— ; .
LOOKING FORWARD
Speaker-independent systems can rec-
ognize voice input from anyone at any PC
anytime. Right now. systems require an
initial training period in order to create a
voice file for the speech recognition en-
gine to use as a point of comparison with
the speech being entered. Without such a
file, the near-l(X)-percent accuracy that
Philips and IBM deliver in their vertieal
systems today could not be achieved.
Speaker-independent systems will re-
quire large samples of voice snippets for
the computer to build a certain accept-
able range for all words. Such samples
will let them recognize a user's particular
diction, inflection, and voice timbre.
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products
(L&H) has created a “linguistic data-
base” to be used as the basis for its recog-
nition engines. The database makes
possible innovations such as dictating
e-mail to your computer and having it
read back to you.
ismo«iviT?
In Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A
Space Odyssey, a computer — the
HAL9000 — played a central role. HAL
understood every word he heard, includ-
ing nuance and subtleties, and he re-
sponded in a soft, mellifluous voice.
Of course, HAL was a Hollywood
prop. To understand whether a HAL-like
system is possible soon, we spoke with Dr.
Jim Glass, principal research scientist at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technolo-
gy's Spoken Language Systems group. His
group has already moved from speech
recognition to speech understanding.
The difference between the two tech-
nologies is vast. In speech recognition,
the computer simply determines how to
spell each word it hears in order to dis-
play it on-screen. Speech understanding
goes the next step; the computer builds a
please send us a copy oF your
latest report underline latest
and please no later than
tuesday the
l/th put l/th in
numerical Form
series of connected ideas from the stream
of words it hears.
Glass and his colleagues have created
a prototype system called Galaxy that re-
sponds to natural-language input voice
commands to make airline reservations
or check the weather. Galaxy doesn’t talk
back as HAL did. however.
Glass admits that “the speeeh-recogni-
tion folks and the speech-synthesis people
don't talk to one another as much as they
should.” but he notes that each group is
beginning to take more notice of the
other's work. Glass and his group are also
beginning to move away from Unix-based
workstations and toward multi-CPU Win-
dows NT systems.
And how soon might we see a HAL-
like system? “Galaxy is a long way from
HAL,” says Glass, “and it operates on a
very limited knowledge domain. Then
again. 2001 is still four years off,
isn’t it?”
D. Speech recognition software can meld
seamlessly into your everyday applications,
such as your word processor or e-mail client
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 207
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LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING USER INTERFACES
RECOGNIZING THE FUTURE
The current crop of speech and handwriting recognition technologies remind us just
how close 2001 really is. By les Freed
A lthough speech and handwriting
recognition products have been
around for some years, they have
been in forms that clearly show these are
still emerging technologies. We're still
years away from slick desktop systems
that will accept input from you in any way
you choose (whether by keyboard,
speech, or handwriting) and give output
back (whether by synthesized voice,
screen, or printer).
It’s probably our overexposure to the
facile voice recognition rampant be-
tween humans and computers in science
fiction movies and TV shows that pre-
conditions us to expect so much from
these products right now. The truth is,
the voice recognition products out on the
market are pretty good, when you con-
sider the complexities of English itself as
well as the many dialectal variations and
other distinguishing pronunciations. All
the products seem to specialize to some
extent — in order to deliver better perfor-
mance in some areas — yet all are aimed
at similar goals.
DICTATION AND CONTROL
A capable, easy-to-use dictation and
voice control program for Microsoft
DragonOktatc providad the best system for
mouse positioning, including an extensive
commend set and a nine-xone grid.
Windows 95, Dragon Systems’ DragonDk-
tate for Windows, Version 1.S2 ($695 list),
performs all its discrete speech recogni-
tion tasks admirably. But where
DragonDictate really shines is as a voice
control program.
DragonDictate was the only product
in our test group to provide easy, accu-
rate mouse positioning. All you have to
do is say “mouse up” or “mouse left” and
the pointer moves to that spot.
We were also very impressed with
Dragon’s clever mouse grid system. It
provides very accurate mouse position-
ing, but using this system can be time-
consuming. To use it, you say “mouse
grid,” and a nine-zone grid appears on-
screen. You can move the pointer to any
of the nine zones by saying the zone num-
ber. When you do, a new
and smaller grid appears
in the selected zone.
New users need to read
only 16 simple words, such
as international and tech-
nology, for initial training
before they start dictating.
We obtained very good
recognition accuracy after
the initial training.
DragonDictate fine-tunes
your profile as you use the
product, learning your
pronunciation peculiari-
ties on the fly.
The program’s method
of recognizing speech can
be distracting, however,
because it assumes that
you’re watching the screen as you dictate.
As you dictate each word, DragonDictate
displays a list of the ten closest matches in
its vocabulary, with the most likely match
at the top. If DragonDictate misunder-
stands a word, you can choose the correct
word from the list. Or you can spell the
correct word, and DragonDictate will
learn it. We found this method of simul-
taneous dictating and editing to be sur-
prisingly reassuring.
DragonDictate maintains two distinct
vocabularies. The 30,000-word active vo-
cabulary, which consists of the most com-
monly used words, resides in RAM; a
120,000-word back-up vocabulary stays
on the hard disk.
ADDINO VOICE TO WINDOWS
IBM was a pioneer in computer voice-
recognition, and the company’s exten-
sive experience is reflected in these prod-
ucts. Although the two products are
vastly different and are aimed at differ-
ent markets, both use the same speech
recognition technology.
VoiceType for Windows ($699 list) adds
voice command operation to Windows 95.
It also adds voice dictation capabilities to
several popular Windows applications, in-
cluding either of Corel Corp.’s office
suites, Lotus SmartSuite, and Microsoft
Office. VoiceType comes with a 22,000-
word vocabulary, and you can add anoth-
er 42,000 words of your own.
We found VoiceType’s discrete speech
recognition to be fast and nearly 100 per-
cent accurate, but voice command op-
eration was a bit awkward,
especially compared with
DragonDictate’s.
VoiceType’s initiation
process is pretty painless.
It installs from a CD-
ROM in about 5 minutes,
and you can train Voice-
Type with a brief enroll-
ment session in which sen-
tences flash on-screen and
you read them back.
The VoiceType pack-
age includes a comfortable
headset that has a noise-
cancelling microphone.
The headset features an
on/off switch for the mi-
crophone, so you can
mute the microphone dur-
ing a dictation session. This is a welcome,
real-world feature.
DOCTORS HAVE ALL THE rUN
Radiologists lead us into the forefront of
speech recognition, as IBM has devel-
oped a continuous-speech voice-dicta-
tion package specifically for them. The
company’s $4,495 MedSpeak/Radiology 1.1
is a CPU-intensive client/server system
with a 25,000-word vocabulary that runs
on Windows NT. Its near-real-time
recognition and high accuracy rate dur-
ing our ad hoc testing bode well for the
future.
Dictating medical reports based on
findings in X rays and CAT scans occu-
VokcTypc for Windows usos
discrotc spcoch recognition that
is fast and accurate.
210 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted maierial
LOOKING FORWARD
Speech Magic from Philips
C onsidering its status
as a major force in
the dictation-equipment
business, we guess it's no
surprise that Philips
Speech Processing’s
SpeechMagic voice
recognition system is
modeled after a tradi-
tional dictation and
transcription system. In
traditional dictation, the
user will dictate a report,
a memo, or a letter into a
recording system, and
later that recording will
be transcribed by a
stenographer or a secre-
tary. Philips’ SpeechMagic
system, unlike IBM’s
MedSpeak. follows the
same model.
To create a document, a
user dictates into a PC using
Philips’ proprietary micro-
phone. which resembles a
standard dictation micro-
phone. The SpeechNote
voice-file-creation software
can reside on a multitude of
desktops, and the Speech-
Magic voice recognition
engine can run on just one
or a few systems to offer an
enterprise solution.
The Sp««chPad dtlivefs an
on-th«-|o »olution for con-
tinuous speech recognition.
A transcription operator
can then process the col-
lected digital voice files
through the SpeechMagic
recognition software and
thereafter serve more as an
editor than a secretary.
When the product was
demonstrated in our New
York offices. SpeechMagic
recognized about 99 per-
cent of the words in a
sample radiology report.
The one word it missed was
cauliflower, which wasn't in
its vocabulary. (Speech-
Magic contains a 64.000-
word vocabulary stored in
RAM. with an additional
44,000 words stored on
the hard disk.) Philips uses a
proprietary speech recog-
nition accelerator board to
achieve near-real-time
recognition of all recorded
speech files.
Philips sells the Speech-
Magic system through a
network of value-added
resellers and independent
software vendors. These
VARs and ISVs tailor the
system for a specific disci-
pline. such as litigation or
radiology.
Philips also showed us a
preview of SpeechPad. a
hand-held digital voice
recorder that’s the exact
shape and size of a micro-
cassette dictation
recorder. Users can record
dictation just as they
would on a microcassette
recorder. The medium,
however, is a PCMCIA card.
Users can then download
the digitized voice data
into a PC for later recogni-
tion and transcription—
and even transfer the files
via e-mail when they are
working on the road.
pies a significant portion of a radiologist's
day. MedSpeak lets doctors make these
reports more timely and accurate, be-
cause the doctors can see written reports
on-screen as they are being dictated.
To test the product, we read some
sample radiology reports, provided by a
doctor. The results were startling. Even
without training the system to recognize a
particular voice, MedSpeak provided a
transcription that was nearly 100 percent
accurate. The words appeared on-screen
a fraction of a second after they were spo-
ken, even when we intentionally ran the
words together. MedSpeak even under-
stood our purely phonetic pronunciation
of some unfamiliar medical terms.
Although the language used in these
reports is foreign to most of us, it consists
of a relatively small vocabulary of medical
terms and some simple English words.
MedSpeak Is a Windows NT-based
clientyserver system that consists of three
components. The server application uses
IBM's DB2 database engine to maintain a
database of stored reports. The client ap-
plication performs the actual voice recog-
nition and transcription, and an optional
order-entry application allows a medical
secretary or other clerical person to enter
reports manually into the report database.
One server can manage multiple dictation
clients. Our version of MedSpeak includ-
ed a broadcast-quality Sennheiser micro-
phone: for $100 less, you can get an AKG
headset instead.
Real-time recognition requires signifi-
cant computing horsepower. For this rea-
son. IBM recommends using a 200-MHz
Pentium Pro to run MedSpeak. although
we were able to achieve nearly 100 per-
cent accuracy running MedSpeak on a
200-MHz Pentium.
According to IBM, the recognition
technology in MedSpeak can be adapted
to any profession that uses a fairly limited
vocabulary, including other medical and
legal specialties, and will ultimately be
used for consumer voice products.
SPIAKER INDEPENDINCI
One of the goals of speech recognition
is speaker independence, and Kurzweil
Voice for Windows Release 2.S, Personal
Edition ($295 list) and Professional Edition
($595 list), deliver on this front. Al-
though you can use Kurzweil's discrete
speech products without any training,
they will work much better for you when
you devote the time it takes to train the
system.
The main difference between the per-
sonal and professional versions is vocabu-
lary size: The personal edition has a
30,(XX)-word vocabulary, while the profes-
sional edition contains 60,000 words.
Both products are speaker indepen-
dent. so you can begin using them with-
out having to sit through a lengthy voice
training process. Kurzweil claims an
“out-of-the-box” accuracy of 90 percent
or better, but the programs misunder-
stood many common words until we went
through the enrollment process.
That tedious 45-minute process ulti-
mately proved worthwhile, as accuracy
improved to nearly 100 percent there-
after. The programs support continuous
number recognition, and we found the
voice recognition to be nearly instanta-
neous, requiring only the briefest pauses
between words.
The user interface is simple and unob-
trusive. Like DragonDictate, the Kurzweil
Voice products each show a list of words
as you speak, with the closest match at the
top and four alternative choices below. If
the programs misunderstand a word, you
can choose another from the word list, or
you can spell it out and the products will
remember it.
The products don't have separate com-
mand and dictation modes and don't re-
MAROI 25. IW7 PC MAGAZINE 211
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WHATEVER IT TAKES
LOOKING FORWARD
quire any special macro files or any other
drivers to work with most application pro-
grams. We tried them with Microsoft Excel
7, Internet Explorer 3.0, and Word 7 sim-
ply by using spoken commands. If you
need to enter a word or phrase that's un-
pronounceable. such as a URL, you simply
spell out the text using the military phonet-
ic alphabet (“alpha,” “bravo,” “Charlie,”
and so on).
The primary shortcoming was the
handling of mouse movement. We found
the mouse difficult to control, especially
compared with our experience using
DragonDictate's mouse grid system. Like
the other products in our roundup, the
Kurzweil Voice packages each require a
Pentium PC with a sound card. Included
in both is a microphone/hcadset.
HANDWtUnNO HAS
ITS DAY
Remember how your
fourth-grade teacher
used to harp on you to
make your letters just
so? Maybe she knew
you'd need to use a
handwriting recogni-
tion system some day.
Encouragingly, consid-
ering the recent past,
handwriting recognition
today is dead-on accu-
rate. Here's a peek at the ten not* on the
technology as applied in
three PDA and one desktop (or laptop)
system.
Of the three hand-held PC handwrit-
ing products we tested, two — the HP
OmniOo 120 Organizer Plus and U.S.
Robotics' Pilot 5000 — use Graffiti, a
modified alphabet designed just for
handwriting recognition systems. Graffi-
ti provides very accurate recognition on
minimal CPU horsepower. To do so. it
requires you to learn a modified alphabet,
so that it can easily interpret your input
rather than learning your handwriting.
You enter the letter A as an upside-down
V. the letter F as a backward 7. Because
Graffiti characters are similar to familiar
letters, though, the alphabet takes only
about 15 minutes to learn.
To improve recognition accuracy. Graf-
fiti uses separate alphabetic and numeric
entry modes, which you switch between
easily. This allows Graffiti to assign two
meanings to the same character: The 7 is a
T in alpha mode and 7 in numeric mode.
The Pilot 5000 ($299 list) was the small-
est. lightest product we saw. It has a rela-
tively small screen — 2.5 by 2.5 inches — but
it’s something you grow to accept for the
convenience. It may be trouble for some
users in poor lighting conditions.
The HP OmnlGo 120 Organizer Plus ($400
street) is nearly twice the size of the
Pilot, but its screen is about the same.
The screen is not backlit, but the Omni-
Go uses holographic technology from
Polaroid, which results in a highly reflec-
tive background that makes the screen
appear to be backlit under brightly lit
conditions. The screen doubles as a
DUKTOP HANDWniTINS
Though much of the buzz surrounding
handwriting-recognition and pen-input
devices has focused on PDAs, the desktop
and laptop crowd has not been neglected
entirely. CIC's Handwriter Manta ($269 list)
is a pen-input device that effectively trans-
lates handwriting into typed text. It takes
some getting used to. but it works with any
Windows-based laptop or desktop PC.
The Handwriter uses a battery-pow-
ered radio-frequency pen. The writing
surface detects the radio signal to deter-
mine the pen's position. Because the
Handwriter includes Microsoft’s Pen
Windows Extensions, the pen can serve
double duty as both a pointing device and
a stylus. And be-
cause the Hand-
writer knows ex-
actly where the
Staff Meeti«9- 4PM
pen is, it can
position the
cursor with ex-
treme accura-
cy. The pen po-
iee<DV clCi Handwriter M»nta, th€ HP
„„peoduct.driv*h«^wHtingr«^^-^^^^
OmniGo 110 Orgmiier interpretetton. Not bed.
tefinoteonttieMestegeFedlebov sition is absolute: If you pick up the pen
touch pad. and you can navigate through and move it. say. to the lower-left-hand
the OmniGo’s menu system using either
the stylus or the keyboard.
ANOTHER PLAYER MATURES
Apple Computer’s MessagePad 2000 (to
be released about the time you read this;
it is expected to sell for under $1,000)
represents a big step forward from the
early problems the original MessagePad
suffered.
Handwriting recognition is the Mes-
sagePad’s star attraction. We gave the Mes-
sagePad to half a dozen people (including
two doctors notorious for their awful hand-
writing) and asked them to write on-screen.
Every time, the MessagePad deciphered
each person's handwriting with nearly 100-
percent accuracy.
The MessagePad is larger than the
other PDAs discussed here, but its screen
(at 3.5 by 5 inches) justifies the size.
corner of the tablet, the pointer will jump
to the Windows 95 Start button.
The Handwriter’s recognition soft-
ware is easy to install and requires no
special training. To use the recognition,
you start your application (we used Mi-
crosoft Word 7.0) and use the pen to
write on the tablet. As you write, your
writing appears on the screen in red
“ink.” As you form each word, the ink
disappears, and the recognized text ap-
pears in your document.
Unlike PDA-based handwriting sys-
tems, the Handwriter does not offer visu-
al feedback from the tablet itself, so you
must learn to write while looking at the
screen. This takes some practice, but we
were writing in a normal fashion in half
an hour. The keyboard and mouse re-
main active, so you can switch among
your input devices. □
MARCH 25. I W PC MAGAZINE 213
LOOKING FORWARD
FLITI IPI^
BUSINESS NETWORKINe
Today's technologies and
tomorrow’s economies will
expand network options.
By Frank J. Derfler, Jr.
Let's step a decade
down the road and
peek into the win-
dows of a business
office. The cubi-
cles look familiar
to fans of Scott Adams’s “Dilbert," but
the communications links — and. we hope,
the productivity — are better than
Adams’s characters enjoy. The personal
digital assistants are smaller and smarter,
and the separations between telephone
and data systems are gone. Most impor-
tant, the physical walls of the corporation
are less solid and confining.
In the 1990s. the 80/20 rule was a major
principle of corporate communications
planning. That rule said that 80 percent of
corporate voice and data traffic stayed in-
side the organization and only 20 percent
went outside. In the first decade of the
twenty-first century, the rule is much more
like 50/50. The line between communica-
tions inside and outside the corporation is
smudged and dotted, and the 80/20 rule is
a fossil. Wide area network (WAN) con-
nections are as important to the corpora-
tion as local area network (LAN) connec-
tions. The extension of corporate
connectivity out across a WAN was the
end of the third major evolutionary phase
of corporate networking. As our lime line.
“The Evolution of the Network," illus-
trates, the first two phases focused on get-
ting connected and on enhancing perfor-
mance. The next two phases focus on
providing service with the qualities need-
ed for specific applications, such as video
and sound, and on reaching a balance be-
tween economy and flexibility.
In the early twenty-first century, the
changes in corporate connectivity will be
more in quality than in type. You won’t
see many physical differences, except for
an increase in the number of people
working from home and in satellite of-
fices, People working outside the office
will be tightly connected and more effec-
tive, but there won’t be a wholesale
change in the corporate information
infrastructure. Investments in technolo-
gies like multimode fiber and switching
are safe in the 1990s. because they will
have paid long-term dividends.
In 1 997. we see that while the rules of
corporate culture evolve gradually, it’s
more difficult to bend the laws of physics.
There is a big difference in throughput,
cost, and technology between the circuits
carrying local area networks and
those in wide area networks.
LANs extend out to about a mile
and provide throughput on the
order of 10 to 100 megabits per
second (Mbps) at low costs. Short
distances keep high throughput
at a low cost. Today’s local net-
works typically don’t suffer from a short-
age of throughput, but the wide area con-
nections are crimped by the laws of both
physics and economics. Wide area links
today typically have a throughput of 1.5
Mbps and cost several thousand dollars
per month.
But if corporate culture calls for more
WAN capacity, then in a free economy
ideas and competition will follow the
need. The options for fast wide area con-
nections will multiply over the next
decade as the costs drop. Similarly, a
cocktail of LAN technologies will carry
the load for new multicast and multi-
media applications. Technology can meet
the needs in both local and wide area net-
work segments, but the wide area options
will be a confusing, regional, and changing
mix of technology and politics. The
LAN/campus picture will have a lot more
bandwidth, with just a little more cost.
Let’s take an overview of the tech-
nologies that will make a difference in the
next decade, and then look at the efforts
of specific vendors and how they translate
into products.
• ISDN. The three killer applications that
were supposed to propel ISDN were
videoconferencing, remote access, and In-
ternet access. Videoconferencing has
grown more slowly than expected, and
ISDN’s value for remote access and Inter-
net access is threatened by the potential
of 56-Kbps modems. (For more on ISDN,
see “Home Connectivity" in this issue.) A
decade down the road, corporate cus-
tomers will use very little ISDN,
because of the benefits and ag-
gressive pricing of virtual-private-
network frame-relay services of-
fered by many competing carriers.
• 56-Kbps modems. One of the first
nails in the coffin of ISDN might
be the 56-Kbps modem. While
ISDN offers more than twice the through-
put, 56-Kbps modems are fast enough for
individual Internet access and business re-
mote-access applications, and they don’t
have the monthly and per-minute charges
of ISDN. Standards for these modems
won’t appear until 1998. but unlike with
ISDN, installation should happen practi-
cally overnight. (See “Home Connectivi-
ty" for a more detailed examination of 56-
Kbps modems.) The use of 56-Kbps
modems in business, within the limits of
their coverage, will offer fast and econom-
ical work-from-home service.
INSIDE
THEIUUSnUTtD
NETWORK
PUNNINCFORTHE
DEUDE
NEXT-GENERATION
EINERNET
214 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
• Frame relay. It's been around for many
years, but frame relay is just reaching a
popularity peak that will last until it is
gradually and invisibly replaced by asyn-
chronous transfer mode (ATM) networks
after the turn of the century. Frame relay
is a WAN digital service that puts data
into packets, then sends those packets
through a series of interconnected switch-
es to their destinations. It offers flexibili-
ty, reliability, and economy.
Large institutions and governments
maintain their own frame-relay networks,
but most organizations subscribe to frame-
relay services from a local or long-distance
telephone company or from a specialized
data carrier, such as CompuServe Net-
work Services or IBM Global Network.
You can vary the type of service by loca-
tion. and everything from 56 Kbps to more
than 155 Mbps is available. The carriers
like frame relay because (unlike leased
lines) its switched architecture uses their
circuits efficiently, so they price it at a flat
rate well below that of leased lines and
below comparable ISDN connections.
The biggest change that businesses will
see in their WANs in the next five to ten
years will be virtual frame-relay networks
replacing leased lines and ISDN connec-
tions. All types and aggregations of tele-
phone, cable, power, and other service
companies will offer metropolitan-area
frame-relay network services in various
configurations and at increasingly com-
petitive prices. Frame-relay providers will
compete with Internet service providers.
• ATM. It’s taken a long time for asynchro-
nous transfer mode to find its niche.
While frame relay is great for data, its rel-
atively large packets can be delayed dur-
ing transmission across the network, so
digital video and audio transmissions over
frame relay are jerky and full of holes.
ATM uses much smaller packages called
cells and provides for better ways to en-
sure their timely delivery — a feature
called quality of service, or QOS.
At first ATM was touted as a way to
link local and wide area networks seam-
lessly. but any demand for ATM to the
The Evolution of the Network
Into the 21st century, network needs shift from physical connections to economy and flexibility.
Ethernet and Token-Ring connect desktop PCs to the network.
... ^‘S^^BnTodem^o^emot^nnntMMSDNgrov^^
CABUS AND CONNECTIONS
PERFORMANa - WIDE AREA NETWORKS QUALITY OF SERVia
NETWORK PHASES
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 215
LOOKING FORWARD
The Illustrated Network
N etworking terms cover so much territo-
ry that they can quickly confuse those
unfamiliar with the jargon. To help you get a
sense of where these technologies and
products fit into your network, we’ve
designed a basic field guide that indicates
whether a term applies to #a LAN (local area
network) or ■ a WAN (wide area network).
There’s no strict definition for either of
these categories, but you can think of a LAN
as all the PCs, servers, and devices that
connect them at a single geographical
location. WANs link individual networks or
users over long distances and can be private
or public. The Internet, of course, is the
most famous (and most public) WAN.
• FastltlMriMt A networking technology
that op>erates like Ethernet, but at 100 Mbps
instead of 10 Mbps. Fast Ethernet is used to
provide high-speed connections to servers
and between LAN segments. Fast Ethernet
can also connect PCs on a network, but
many network backbones today would be
unable to handle such high-bandwidth
connections from every desktop.
• GigftWtEtlierfMt Designed to operate
at 1,000 Mbps, or 1 Gbps. Gigabit Ethernet
will link servers and LAN segments and is
thought to be more attractive than ATM.
because it behaves like Ethernet.
# ■ AayiKhroiioiit transfer mode
(ATM) A cell-switched networking tech-
nology suitable for LANs as well as WANs
because of its inherently scalable design.
ATM. however, might never be widely
deployed for desktop connections. ATM
runs from 25 Mbps up to 655 Mbps or faster.
■ ISDN A digital service for sending data
and voice. ISDN is available with a basic-rate
interface (BRI), which provides up to 128
Kbps, or with a primary-rate interface (PRI),
which provides up to 1.544 Mbps.
■ Leased line A private, nonswitched,
dedicated communications line, which
contrasts with dial-up lines like ISDN or
telephone-service lines. Today, most com-
panies’ WAN connections are leased lines,
typically running at 56 Kbps or 1.5 Mbps.
■ frame relay A packet-switching net-
working technology designed for sending
data over wide area networks that is more
efficient than leased line. Frame relay can
transmit at variable rates, from 56 Kbps to as
fast as 155 Mbps.
desktop, promoted in products from IBM
and other companies, might never over-
come the inertia of installed Ethernet sys-
tems. It now appears that ATM will
evolve as a replacement for frame relay in
subscription wide area services. An indi-
vidual user's application can request spe-
cific QOS handling from the ATM net-
work for streams of data, yielding a
network that's more than just dumb pipes.
ATM backbone networks running at 155
Mbps. 622 Mbps, and faster will feed data
to the new residential delivery systems,
such as cable modems and the telephone
digital subscriber links described in
•“Home Connectivity."
• High-level switching. As a technology,
switching is ancient. Many concepts in-
corporated in turn-of-the-century tele-
phone switches find their way into today's
216 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. IW
ATM and Ethernet switches. The latter
were adopted when individual LAN seg-
ments grew to have so many busy nodes
that sharing the connection became a
problem. Switches store and forward
packets and appear to give each node a
path into the network without contention.
Unfortunately, the concept of switching in
both ATM and Ethernet breaks down
when applications try to broadcast data to
all nodes at once.
Competing groups of vendors are tout-
ing more sophisticated switches that ex-
amine each packet to determine how it
should be handled, based on the originat-
ing application, instructions from the des-
tination, and other factors. The problem
of broadcast packets isn't unique to large
networks, and high-level switches are like-
ly to become an important part of the traf-
fic maniigement and security of all busi-
ness-critical networks in three to six years.
• Wireless WANs. The next few years promise
to bring several new high-speed ground-
and space-based wireless data services that
can provide instant connectivity anywhere.
The important wireless technology hap-
pening right now is the replacement for the
analog cellular phone systems used in
North America, referred to as Personal
Commimicaiions Service (PCS). Initially,
the appeal of these technologies is not
speed: You’ll typically get digital signaling
speeds of about 13 to 14 Kbps — slower
than a V.34 modem. But the connections
are good enough for the use of compres-
sion. and unlike analog cellular service,
they're very reliable. Digital service is be-
coming real now, with recent roll-outs of
service from Sprint PCS in Fresno, Mil-
waukee, Spokane, and Portland. Many
other companies, including regional carri-
ers like Ameritech and GTE, are starting
digital service this year.
But the terrestrial PCS carriers will
face stiff competition from a higher plane.
Within the next four years, the sky will be
dotted with broadband digital satellite
services from Loral Space and Communi-
cations’ CyberStar, Motorola’s M-Star,
Hughes Communications’ SpaceWay,
Teledesic Corp,, and AT&T’s VoiceSpan.
These companies have a variety of
schemes and announcements, but they
typically include 2 Mbps to 6 Mbps of dig-
ital service. Many organizations, particu-
larly those with international operations,
will benefit from these fast, competitive
digital wireless services.
• Fast Ethernet. Fast Ethernet rolled over
competitors and emerged as the favorite
way to link file servers, databases, and Web
servers into local networks. Fast Ethernet is
also arriving as a desktop technology. Im-
plemented in wiring hubs and LAN
adapter cards. Fast Ethernet is now a core
technology that will power networks for a
decade to come.
• Gigabit Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet sys-
tems, shipping in 1997, will merge Fast
Ethernet’s big pipes into aqueducts of
data within the LAN and among LAN
segments in a campus network. Unlike
ATM, this technology is emerging as a
mature solution with a purpose. Gigabit
Ethernet will be the campus and enter-
prise backbone beyond 1999.
Copyrighted malarial
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING BUSINESS NETWORKING
SWITCHING TO FASTER NETS
The combination of next-generation switching products and standards will give net-
works more flexibility and intelligence. By Frank j. Derfier, Jr.
T he best advice for network planners
today is. "Switch when you can. and
route if you must." The philosophy
behind it is that switching is a simple hard-
ware-level task that happens quickly, with
little management overhead, whereas
routing requires complex software and an
extensive overhead and management
structure.
Contemporary networks use routers to
determine which packets cross local and
wide area links between LANs. Because of
routers' complexity, greater overhead,
and management difficulties, network de-
signers are now turning to hardware
switches to do the job instead. Like routers,
today's switches read destination address-
es and take actions, but a switch's action is
a simple hardware response, and the
switch relies on other switches in the path
to have more detailed information about
the destination.
It used to be that common interest
groups within a company — those generat-
ing high traffic among themselves — were
clustered together. Today, common inter-
est groups are increasingly made up of
members in many different locations,
scattered all over the country if not the
world. This arrangement leads to virtual
networks: nodes of consistent heavy traf-
fic without geographical commonality.
Frame relay currently has capabilities for
predetermined virtual networks, but new
switches increasingly will be able to rec-
ognize virtual network traffic and give it
special or more economical handling.
FAST, LIAN NITWOMCS
Frame-relay switches handle large pack-
ages of data efficiently. The switches can
differentiate among the priorities of dif-
ferent groups of users and offer a guaran-
teed minimum level of service. ATM.
frame relay's successor in wide area net-
works. chops data streams into tiny pack-
ages called cells and then overcomes the
inefficiency of transferring small packages
with today’s fast and affordable process-
ing power. Along with the ability to han-
dle video and audio efficiently. ATM
switches can respond to requests for spe-
cial handling contained within each cell.
While this quality of service (QOS) fea-
ture is not unique to ATM networks.
ATM is the first networking technology
to have QOS features built into its archi-
tecture. Leading ATM vendors include
FORE Systems. Cisco Systems. IBM.
Newbridge Networks, and 3Com Corp.
Switching is fast, easy to install, and
relatively inexpensive, but it falls apart
when general broadcast traffic, such as
training or news feeds or even network
games, floods the network. Vendors such
as Bay Networks. Cisco. IBM. Ipsilon.
and 3Com are developing higher-level
switching systems that carry many differ-
ent names, like IP Switching. Fast IP. and
Tag Switching. These systems look deep-
er into a packet, cell, or frame to deter-
mine what application sent it and how it
should be handled. A stream of video or a
long file transfer between two points will
trigger special handling. Broadcasts will
be handled according to destination-
specific rules set up in the switch.
These companies are pushing propri-
etary ideas and have positioned them-
selves in the competitive and cooperative
process of developing standards. Some
standards — particularly those determin-
ing how switches and other devices set up
virtual networks and how they look inside
packets to determine QOS — will emerge
this year. Others, such as those defining
how switches dynamically determine the
best path to a destination, will follow. In
the next three to six years, these high-
level switches will gradually become a
critical part of modem networks that need
special services for specific kinds of data.
PLANNING FOR THE DECADE
How should you prepare for all these
fast-connection alternatives? The enter-
prise wiring closets are the key to eco-
nomical growth. To be ready for tomor-
row, your wiring closet should have a
chassis-based switching hub with a fast in-
ternal backplane.
Chassis-based switches aren’t cheap.
They’re investment-grade hardware. You
can set up a simple network today using a
single $2,000 stackable hub: such a net-
work would require an initial investment
of $20,000 using a chassis-based switch.
But upgrading the stackable hub system
to add dozens of new ports, switching, and
Gigabit Ethernet — or. for WAN links,
frame relay or ATM — probably means at-
taching a completely different device.
Each new device involves adding another
Ethernet segment, reconfiguring to avoid
breaking rules regulating the number of
segments, and disrupting the whole LAN.
Upgrading a chassis-based switch in-
volves simply adding a slide-in module.
and the power stays on.
Other benefits of chassis-
based switches include cen-
tralized and extensive man-
agement features and the fast
internal backplane that con-
nects each module, avoiding
the problems of too many
segments.
We’ll briefly describe four
chassis-based Fast Ethernet
switch systems from Cisco
Systems, 3Com Corp., Ca-
bletron Systems, and IBM
that will provide a sound basis
for a decade of growth. Each of these is a
rack-mountable cabinet with a fast internal
backplane and a family of add-in modules,
often referred to as "blades" because they
are long and thin. In addition to the ven-
dors we discuss below — examples of good
investment strategies for tomorrow's data
MARCH 25. IW PC MAUAZINi; 217
LOOKING FORWARD
systems — a list of companies with
products in this category
would include Bay Net-
works, Compaq Computer
Corp., Digital Equipment
Corp., FORE Systems,
Hewlett-Packard Co., Opti-
cal Data Systems, and Xylan
Corp.
MMAC-Plus the in-
dustry's highest-port-
density Gigabit Ether-
net switching platform.
Although Ca-
bletron’s list of WAN
options isn’t as long
as IBM’s, the com-
pany offers flexible
FDDI and ATM al-
aSCO CATALYST MOO T1»C«oC«.lyrt
The Cisco Catalyst 5000
switch, a core product in the Catalyst fam-
ily, has four available expansion slots for
flexible connection options. You can mix
and match the open slots with LAN mod-
ules for 10-Mbps Ethernet using various
types of cables. Fast Ethernet, Fiber Dis-
tributed Data Interface (FDDI), and other
options. You can choose to add 100-Mbps
FDDI and 155-Mbps ATM wide area com-
munications modules to form the back-
bone of connections among wiring closets.
Inside the eabinet is a backplane operating
at 1.2 Gbps that carries data and
management information among
the modules.
ICOMLANPUXAOM
No company is more devoted to
Gigabit and Fast Ethernet than
3Com. Although the company is
talking a lot right now about the
SuperStack II family of stackable
hubs for workgroups, it’s the
LANplex 6000 series of chassis-
based Ethernet switching systems that is
designed for corporate wiring closets.
3Com promotes the Ethemet-to-ATM and
Ethemet-to-FDDI handling capabilities of
its LANplex products. New LANplex mod-
ules will allow you to make ATM connec-
tions at up to 622 Mbps.
tematives.
IBM NWAYS
IBM’s huge Nways family of chassis-based
systems ineludes the 8274 Nways system,
which has several chassis configurations for
floor or rack mounting. IBM’s catalog lists
more than 70 add-in modules for the 8274
family, including all the usual LAN con-
nections and a wide variety of WAN links.
There are five different switching modules
with various capabilities. If you have
Token-Ring networking now. IBM is ready
to help you replace it with 25-Mbps ATM
Tin IBM 8274 Nways LAN RoutaSwKch Modal SOO.
to the desktop. The IBM chassis has a 2-
Gbps backplane, a mind-boggling set of
management options, and the ability to
hold dozens of frame-relay, ATM, or
FDDI ports.
NIXT-OINUATION ITHIRNIT
CABLimON MMAC
Cabletron’s MMAC and the larger-capaci-
ty MMAC-Plus families of chassis-based
hubs and switches are another industry
standard. The MMAC SmartSwitch family
includes various cabinet configurations and
several options for Fast Ethernet switching.
Cabletron is stressing its commitment to Gi-
gabit Ethernet. The company says its an-
nounced Gigabit Ethernet SmartSwitch will
switch up to 28 separate Gigabit Ethernet
segments within a single chassis, which ac-
cording to Cabletron will make the
“Ten times the speed at only three times
the cost!" That’s the rallying cry of the Gi-
gabit Ethernet Alliance, and its members
are charging fast. Their multiples apply to
100-Mbps Fast Ethernet: Gigabit Ether-
net is designed to provide 1,000-Mbps
throughput, or 1 gigabit per second. But
don’t be confused: Fast Ethernet is an
ally; the enemy is ATM. Although it’s a
little early to raise the arm of the victor, it
won’t be much of a fight on local area net-
work backbones.
Nothing in the original Ethernet spec-
ification of the 1980s limits its speed. The
methods of packaging data and control-
ling access to the network that work at 10
Mbps also work at 1,000 Mbps. With so
much Ethernet in place, it’s natural to use
the same technology that takes data
across the office to move it across the
campus. Unfortunately, built-in limits on
the distance between nodes make pure
Ethernet less practical beyond a few
miles. It won’t provide links between
cities, but using fiber-optic cable, it can do
a great job across a campus or within a
corporate headquarters.
The developers of Gigabit Ethernet —
let’s call it GigE — are on a fast track.
They took technology from the widely
used Fiber Distributed Data Interface
(FDDI) and married it to Ethernet. GigE
will replace FDDI in many installations.
Dozens of companies, including both es-
tablished giants and startups, are betting
large sums on GigE.
As this article entered its final prepa-
ration stages, it was still a few weeks too
early for us to see GigE products that con-
form to even a draft standard. Like other
LAN protocols, the standard is overseen
by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers), a publishing and
standards-making body that is responsi-
ble for many eomputing standards. The
draft of the 802.3z standard for Gigabit
Ethernet was opened for comments in
January and should be voted on in June.
You’ll be able to buy and install real GigE
products in the second half of this year.
The router and switch companies, in-
cluding Bay Networks, Cisco Systems,
and 3Com Corp., strongly support GigE
and will have modules for their existing
chassis-based products. Cisco recently
made a $220 million commitment to Giga-
bit Ethernet through its purchase of
Granite Systems. Sun Microsystems is
one company that sees GigE reaching be-
yond the backbone and into servers, so
you should expect to see adapters for
Sun’s hardware among the early products.
Not everybody needs Gigabit Ethernet.
In offices with hundreds of typical nodes,
100-Mbps Fast Ethernet will provide all the
capacity you’ll need. But if your company
numbers its nodes in the thousands, or if
your network is running specialized high-
volume applications, then the huge back-
bone capacity of Gigabit Ethernet will be in
your future. □
218 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
FUTJ.
HOME CONNECTIVITY
New digital technologies
will deliver services that
match the power of PCs.
By Les Freed
Compared with the
power of your PC,
analog modems are
agonizingly inade-
quate. Using a mo-
dem with today's
Pentium Pro machines is like towing a
Concorde jet around with a lawnmower.
For remote connectivity, most of us still
dial up using the same old modem technol-
ogy over telephone network equipment
that's been around for decades.
Modems are much faster than they
once were, having increased from 300 bits
per second (bps) to 33.6 Kbps. Each suc-
cessive improvement in modem speed
feels fast enough for a while, but it’s not
long before the content we’re viewing and
downloading becomes larger and more
complex, making our fast modems feel
slow again. The main culprit responsible
for our bandwidth lust is ubiquitous Inter-
net access. It whets the appetite, but the
sluggish modems leave people starving
for speed.
Exciting new technologies promise to
change all that in the next 15 years with
drastic increases in bandwidth capacity.
Several viable alternatives to analog
modems are here today or are appearing
on the horizon; ISDN. 56-Kbps modems,
digital subscriber line (DSL) modems,
cable modems, and satellite data services.
With these technologies, we're going to
see new kinds of interactive content that
take advantage of megabit-per-second
220 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
pipes into the home — not just on-demand
movies, but realistic 3-D multiplayer
games and interactive video forums. We‘11
also see new ways of working from home,
as connecting to the office becomes a rich-
er experience with fast connection speeds
and new applications.
By 2(M)0. we expect that the majority
of PC Magazine's readers will have 56-
Kbps or faster connections to their home
‘ Analog connection J
DSl modem at phone company's site
\ isaaHi I
56-Kbpc modem
Analog connection
Analog connection
Analog connection
}3.6 Kbps uploMing
128 Kbps Mploading
Network operations center
33.6 Kbpc Mploading
33.6 Kbps uploading
33.6 Kbps to 1Mbps
uptoaibng
Host at cable operator s site
Copyrighted m.
LOOKING FORWARD
computers. Thai's assuming the
.Sh-Kbps modem technology
bursting on the scene this year
really works on the majority of
installed residential telephone
lines. By 2()l).‘5. more than half of
our readers will have connec-
tions with better than 2-Mbps
throughput.
The technology behind each outside
connection will depend on local politics
and geography. Regardless of the device,
these connections will work invisibly
through routers or switches, giving home
users instant access to I nternet and corpo-
rate intranet services.
idenlial service arc two big un-
answered questions. We do know
that you'll eventually replace your
modem with a high-speed digital
communications device, but it's
not certain w hat technology it will
be. nor can we tell w ho might pro-
vide the service in your area. But
it's safe to assume that as with
ISDN, all of these services will become
available gradually, neighborhood by
neighborhood. For the foreseeable fu-
ture. geography is destiny.
THE GREAT BANDWIDTH RUSH
All kinds of businesses are swooping in to
fill the speed gap with the new technolo-
gies. The telephone companies that pro-
vide data services via a two-way copper
path to the home today — once the only
game in town — are under siege. The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened
the regional phone companies to compe-
tition even for local dial-tone service.
Jumping into the mix with phone compa-
nies are cable operators and satellite ser-
vices. We might also see Internet service
providers (ISPs), alternative local phone-
service providers (called competitive ac-
cess providers, or CAPs), wireless data
companies, and even utility companies of-
fering high-speed data services.
Most of the technologies that these
competitors are basing their services
around are still immature; 56-Kbps
modems, cable, and DSL have limited de-
ployment and no solid industry standards
yet. Even established technologies like
ISDN and satellite data service have not
yet reached a large audience.
Much of the problem for these new ser-
vices is that right now they’re having to
adopt two hats: that of the communications
service provider and also that of content
and Internet service provider. In the world
of analog modems, the phone companies
provide the connection, and ISPs or onUne
services add Internet access and content.
The new companies face not only higher
costs — hindering their prospects for quick
deployment — but also the high hurdle of
producing compelling content while sup-
porting the physical network. In the next
few years, we'll see new companies (or
“content partners,” in the parlance of the
cable service ©Home Network) that pro-
duce high-bandwidth content for cable and
DSL providers, just as HBO and ESPN de-
liver their content through cable TV oper-
ators today. The economies of scale are
better in this model, and the content is like-
ly to be more interesting as well.
A more ominous obstacle to high-
speed home connections is the possibility
that large-scale demand to support these
kinds of services may not exist. ISDN has
languished for years (though not entirely
because of lack of demand). Time War-
ner’s recent interactive television trial in
Orlando. Florida, revealed that customers
value the ability to order stamps far more
than they value high-bandwidth services
like on-demand video.
Some industry figures have even pre-
MAROUrS, 1997 PC MAGAZINE 221
Today, the where and when of fast res-
Kbps downloading
■f./Mt- y.’ V >
U
400 Kbps downloading
1.5 to 8 Mbps
downloading
10 to 27 Mbps
downloading
3
Analog modems
When an analog modem makes a connection, it negotiates with
the receiving modem to make the optimum connection speed.
Depending on the modem technology on both ends of the
connection and the quality of the phone lines and switches, the
connection speed can range from 500 bps to 33.6 Kbps.
56-Kbps modems
The new 56-Kbps technologies achieve a faster speed using
ordinary phone lines by assuming that the connection from the
telephone switch to your destination is digital. Uploading is
limited to regular modem speed (though Lucent claims its
design breaks that limit).
ISDN adapters
An ISDN connection is digital from beginning to end and so
requires high-quality phone lines and modern switch equipment
from your home to your destination. ISDN connects at either 64
Kbps or 128 Kbps. ISDN is not available in all areas, though, and is
more expensive than ordinary phone service.
Satellite data service
Using a satellite dish connected to your PC. a satellite data
service can offer up to 400 Kbps downloading. However, you
must communicate with the service via an analog modem; the
dish must have a clear line of sight to the satellite: and installa-
tion and service charges can be relatively expensive.
Digital subscriber line (DSL) modems
Like ISDN, DSL modems provide a totally digital connection.
Unlike ISDN, which is a switched, dial-up service. DSL is a point-
to-point technology. Though DSL supposedly provides up to 8
Mbps downloading, many Internet service providers have
themselves a much slower connection to the Internet.
Cable modems
Cable modems provide shared, point-to-point data transmission
supposedly of up to 27 Mbps to a cable modem at the operator's
site. Like DSL service, cable modem service is largely unavailable
today, and most of the existing cable infrastructure in the U.S. is
unsuitable for two-way cable modem systems.
INSIDE
ISON ADAPTERS
S6-KBPS MODEMS
SATEUITEDATA
SERVICE
DSL MODEMS
CA8U MODEMS
LOOKING FORWARD
dieted a spreading cyber-malaise. “I
wouldn't be surprised to see an Internet
backlash soon — a ‘Net weariness,”' said
IBM CEO Louis Gerstner Jr. in a keynote
address at last fall’s Internet World trade
show. “All those end users wondering if
this is a waste of time; all those businesses
wondering if this is a waste of money.”
Such sentiments are not what you want to
hear if you’re preparing to spend millions
of dollars setting up an Internet access
business.
Nevertheless, we think these technolo-
gies will arrive at your doorstep in one
shape or another. Here’s an overview of
what’s happening with each of them, the
challenges they face, and where they’re
headed.
• ISDN. Designed in the early 1980s as a dig-
ital replacement for analog telephone ser-
vice, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital
Network) connects your home or office to
a telephone company’s central office
switch using a single pair of wires. That’s
an important point, because it means — at
least in theory — that phone companies
can easily convert existing analog phone
customers to ISDN. But when it became
available, ISDN was torturously difficult
to order, and getting the hardware in-
stalled was a headache. Recently, a surge
of interest in ISDN, fueled in large part by
a demand for faster Internet access, has re-
sulted in a new crop of ISDN equipment
that is virtually self-installing.
The downside is that ISDN still isn’t
universally available in the U.S. (though
it’s widespread in Europe and Japan), and
it can be expensive-about the same as the
price of two analog lines, not including
usage charges. Depending on your local
phone company tariffs, you may pay a
per-call connect charge in addition to per-
minute billing on data calls. Some feel
that ISDN is a technology whose time
came and went. Whereas 64 or 128 Kbps
once seemed like all the speed in the
world, ISDN doesn’t provide a quantum
leap beyond V.34 modems. And while
today ISDN is the most widely available
and mature of the technologies discussed
here, 56-Kbps modems-if they work for
most users-could take the wind out of its
sails for good.
• Si-Kbps modeins. Promoted practically to
the point of exaggeration by U.S. Robotics,
Lucent Technologies, and Rockwell Semi-
Exciting technologies
promise to increase the
bandwicJth to your home
dramatically-but where
and when?
conductor Systems, these new techniques
for 56-Kbps transmission over phone lines
can be considered the modem s last stand.
But their allure is obvious. Though only
about half the full speed of ISDN, 56-Kbps
modems have the potential for rapid roll-
out (unlike ISDN), and there are no
monthly or per-minute charges for 56-Kbps
service from the telephone company.
The drawbacks cannot be ignored.
You will still need a good-quality phone
line to your home, and you will have to be
within a mile or two of the phone compa-
ny's switch — which means that some rural
areas won't ever see 56 Kbps. You need to
access a service provider that has the
hardware support for whatever 56-Kbps
scheme you are using. The host you’re
calling also must have a digital connection
to the Internet or corporate network. Up-
loading speeds are slower. Most impor-
tant for the near term, all 56-Kbps solu-
tions today are proprietary, and standards
are not expected before next year. But the
core network infrastructure is largely in
place for 56-Kbps service, which looks to
diminish the appeal of ISDN for data ser-
vices over the next ten years.
• Satellite data service. Hughes Network Sys-
tems, a division of Hughes Electronics, last
year launched high-speed data service over
its satellite system, offering up to 400-Kbps
downloads (though the one-way system re-
quires a modem link for the back channel
to the service). Satellite data delivery has
its share of drawbacks, including relatively
costly start-up fees, but like ISDN, it's here
today. Unlike ISDN, it's available any-
where in the U.S. that has a clear line of
sight to the service's satellite. It's a great
technology, but depending on the physical
layout of your home or building, satellite
data service may not be a viable option.
• DSL modems. Digital subscriber line and
cable modems are technologically very dif-
ferent but conceptually similar. Both pro-
vide dedicated multimegabit connections,
so your service is always on, unlike dial-up
connections. The phone companies and
equipment vendors claim DSL — which es-
sentially operates as high-speed leased lines
over copper wiring— can reach speeds of
up to 8 Mbps, not as fast as the cable camp
claims for its technology but still light-years
ahead of 33.6-Kbps modems.
As with cable modems, large-scale im-
plementation of DSL will require a sub-
stantial investment. The telephone compa-
nies have managed to put a positive spin on
new DSL technologies, creating the im-
pression that they are deeply committed to
providing fast data services in the near fu-
ture. But gauged against the phone compa-
nies' success in promoting ISDN as a high-
speed service, the prospects for a fast DSL
rollout don’t look promising.
As suppliers of a consumer-oriented
service, DSL providers face the challenge
of producing compelling, affordable, high-
speed content. In the near term, there’s
probably a better chance that DSL will be
geared toward businesses that want to ac-
commodate telecommuters or connect
their networks for Internet access.
• Cable modems. Cable television companies
and cable modem equipment vendors talk
boldly about cable modems and their
claimed 27-Mbps throughput. But few
cable operators talk about the costs needed
to make their systems bidirectional or to
route the data onward once they've collect-
ed it. In the next five to seven years, you're
much more likely to see fast cable down-
loads with analog telephone modem up-
loads than to get real two-way cable
modem service. And unless you’re very
lucky and happen to live or work in the
right place, you won't be able to get cable
modem service soon.
In addition to the technical challenges,
cable modem ventures are faced with the
difficulty of generating unique localized
content that takes advantage of the high
speeds the technology offers. In order to
compete with the phone companies and
other high-speed service providers, the
cable services will have to convince cus-
tomers that the content they provide is
worth paying for. So far, cable trials, flush
with venture-capital cash, simply haven't
been market-tested on a wide scale.
222 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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Copyrryfrtsd material
LOOKING FORWARD
EMERGING HOME CONNECTIVITY
A MARKET SET TO IGNITE
Equipment vendors and service providers will bombard us with competing-and con-
fusing-options for high-speed access. By Les Freed
Diamond
Multimedia's
Supra NetCommander
ISDN.
A lthough ISDN hasn't lived up to ex-
pectations and may soon be road-
kill in the wake of 56-Kbps
modems, it's a mature technology that's
in use today. In recent years, ISDN
adapters have im- _
proved dramatically in
ease of installation and
use. Despite your
neighbor's complaints
about her difficulties
obtaining the service
from the phone compa-
ny, in the next year or
two you have the best
chance of actually get-
ting ISDN of any of the
fast technologies dis-
cussed in this article.
Here we review two of the best ISDN
adapters. Diamond Multimedia Systems'
internal Supra NetCommander ISDN and
3Com Corp.'s 3ComImpact IQ external
ISDN modem. (For a complete roundup
of ISDN adapters, see “Digital Drag-
sters,” February 4, 1997.)
DIAMOND MULTIMIDIA SUPIIA
NtTCOMMANDUl ISDN
Diamond's Supra NetCommander
ISDN breaks new ground in the internal
ISDN adapter market with a $249 list
price, making ISDN fully cost-competi-
tive with V.34 modems. Diamond didn't
cut any corners to make that price point,
either. The ISA-based NetCommander
provides simple installation, a single
full-featured analog jack for a telephone
or fax machine, best-of-breed software,
and excellent performance. An on-
board LED provides visual confirmation
that your ISDN line is working. Dia-
mond's innovative AutolSDN software
graphically displays the status of each of
the two ISDN B-channels. AutolSDN
also shows the number called and length
of call for each call, and it can display
Caller ID data for incoming calls, if the
serviee is available.
224 pc MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
KOMIMMCTiq
The $499 3Comlmpact IQ is 3Com's sec-
ond-generation external ISDN adapter,
and it's the easiest adapter to install we've
ever seen. Most ISDN adapters must be
configured manually. The 3ComImpact
IQ's configuration soft-
ware automatically de-
tects the type of central
office switch it's con-
nected to and service
provider ID (SPID)
codes; all you need to
know is your telephone
numbers for the two B-
channels. The 3ComImpact
IQ includes two analog
jacks, and you can program
either one to connect to one of the two
ISDN B-channels.
M-OPSMODIMS
Modems are like a character from a
Stephen King novel: Just when you think
they're dead, they come right back again.
Less than a year ago, the conventional
wisdom in the modem industry was that
the 33.6-Kbps V.34 specification would be
the industry's last major step forward.
The modem monster isn't
quite dead yet. Last fall, al-
most simultaneously,
three companies —
U.S. Robotics, Rock-
well Semiconductor
Systems, and Lucent
Technologies — an-
nounced that they were
working on separate 56-
Kbps modem technologies. The compa-
nies have different implementations, and
they are probably at least a year away
from an interoperable standard, but
they'll be shipping products within
months. Your choice of whether to pur-
chase one will depend on your ISP's or
company's choice to buy into one of the
proprietary solutions. If you're lucky, you
may be able to upgrade your modem
through a software or firmware upgrade.
We haven't had hands-on experience
with a real, live 56-Kbps modem yet. U.S.
Robotics, the first vendor to promise
products, was unable to send us products
employing its x2 technology so we can’t
report on their performance yet. Compa-
nies using the Rockwell and Lucent chip
sets have announced plans to deliver 56-
Kbps products later this year.
If the 56-Kbps technology works on a
sizable percentage of existing telephone
lines — and that has not yet been demon-
strated — then it will seriously dent the
growth of residential ISDN. The two pri-
mary uses of 56-Kbps modems will be
from home to the ISP and from home to
the office, both areas of ISDN growth.
The huge advantage of 56-Kbps modem
technology is that while it's almost as fast
as a single B-channel ISDN connection, it
doesn’t come with any of the installation
costs and usage fees of ISDN.
U.S. Robotics' x2 technology provides
an example of how 56-Kbps modems
work. The current V.34 modem standard
was designed with the assumption that
both calling and answering modems
would be attached to ordinary analog
phone lines. To achieve 56-Kbps speeds.
x2 assumes that the host end — the x2
Server, in U.S. Robotics’ jargon — is at-
tached to a digital line, such as T1 or
ISDN services. The client modem uploads
data at up to 33.6 Kbps (though Lucent
recently claimed that its technique could
achieve 40 Kbps upstream).
Ordinary modems send
digital data over ana-
log phone lines by
converting the com-
puter's binary data
stream into a series
of modulated tones.
The digital-to-ana-
log-and-back-again
conversion process
introduces a certain amount of distortion
into the digital signal. The V.34 standard
assumes that this conversion process will
take place twice, once at each end of the
connection. x2 eliminates the analog-to-
digital conversion at the server end, allow-
ing for a higher-bandwidth connection.
Now for the caveats: Unlike bona fide
modems, x2 client modems can’t connect
with each other at 56 Kbps, so x2 modems
Copyrighted maisnai
IComlmfMct K2 cxitTnal ISDN a<Uptcr.
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Copyrighted material
LOOKING FORWARD
will fall back to V.34 if you try to connect
two of them together. The calling modem
must be no farther than a mile or two from
the phone company’s digital switch to
achieve 56 Kbps. And to call an x2 server,
you'll need an x2 client modem, since no
standard for 56-Kbps transmission is ex-
pected until at least 1998. Standards de-
bates are nothing new in the modem in-
dustry, and we expect that all parties
involved will work together toward a uni-
fied standard approved by the ITU, the In-
ternational Telecommunications Union, a
Geneva-based organization
that maintains telecommu-
nications standards.
U.S. Robotics plans to pro-
vide x2 as a free firmware up-
grade to some owners of the com-
pany’s flash ROM-based modems.
(U.S. Robotics provides information
about x2 technology at x2.usr.com.)
Rockwell and Lucent have announced
plans to make their 56-Kbps technology
interoperable — in a protocol called
K56flex — but neither will be compatible
with x2. Although neither Lucent nor
Rockwell manufactures modems, both
supply modem chip sets to major vendors,
including Hayes and Microcom.
Once you hook everything up and in-
stall the software, DirecPC can provide
you with stunning download speeds.
Hughes claims a top speed of 400 Kbps.
We like the DirecPC technology, but this
product isn’t for everyone. Installation is
not extremely difficult in a typical single-
family home, but the dish’s positioning
and cabling requirements rule out its use
in most condominiums, apartments, and
office buildings.
Besides the up-front expense, there are
usage costs, and they
can add up. Hughes
Hugh** Ntftworfc
Systams’ DirecPC
satatlit* dish.
offers a variety of pric-
ing packages starting at
$39.95 a month and ranging
up to $129.95 per month for
unlimited use during speci-
fied hours; depending on the
plan and when you call, you incur addition-
al charges of 60 or 80 cents per megabyte
downloaded. There’s also a $9.95 per
month access fee, and you’ll need a dial-up
account with another Internet service
provider for your outbound data.
MTlLUn DATA SWVia
Currently, Hughes Network Systems is
the only provider of satellite data service
in the U.S. Though expensive and not
practical for everyone, satellite data ser-
vice may be the high-speed Internet sys-
tem you’re looking for. In the future,
competing satellite services should drive
down the costs, and bidirectional data
transmission could sweeten satellite
data’s appeal for home and business users
alike. Here we lake a look at Hughes’ Di-
recPC as it’s available today.
DIMCPC
DirecPC is a $499 package (installation
charges are extra) that includes a 21-
inch dish, an ISA card, and assorted ca-
bles and software. In the U.S., the dish
must be installed so that it has a clear
view of the southern sky, and you must
run a coaxial cable from the dish to your
PC. You’ll also need a 28.8-Kbps
modem and a phone line for your out-
bound data, since the satellite system is
broadcast-only.
DU MODIMS
Digital subscriber line (DSL) service is, in
many ways, a better ISDN than ISDN.
Like ISDN, DSL is a service that you’ll
subscribe to from a telephone company or
another local provider. And like ISDN,
DSL uses existing copper lines to carry
data from the phone company’s central
office to your home or business. But un-
like ISDN, DSL is a point-to-point — not
dial-up — service.
DSL is an all-digital service, and it
promises to deliver data at speeds rang-
ing from 1.5 to 8 Mbps or better. You’ll
hear about ADSL (asymmetric digital
subscriber line), HDSL (high-bit-rate
digital subscriber line), RADSL (rate-
adaptive digital subscriber line), and
maybe even other variations. These sig-
naling techniques vary, but the idea is
that the link is faster in one direction
than in the other. The reverse channel
speeds range from 64 Kbps to 1 Mbps.
The differences between the competing
technologies don’t matter much to you,
because you’ll probably get all of the
equipment and service from a local tele-
phone company or another service
provider.
There are dozens of announced DSL
products from big-name vendors like
Paradyne Corp. (formerly part of
AT&T), Motorola, 3Com, and IBM, as
well as a host of smaller start-up compa-
nies. A few products are even shipping, in
limited quantities.
DSL isn’t commercially available yet,
but several trial installations are up and
running. At least two phone companies —
US West and GTE — plan to offer DSL
service in a few limited markets early this
year. Most of the trial installations are
being used to connect telecommuters to
LANs. That seems to be the phone com-
panies’ major focus for DSL, at least for
the time being, and DSL’s point-to-point
nature makes it ideal for this duty: The
link is always up, and the service should
be very reliable. Many home users want a
faster connection to the Internet, but DSL
may not be the answer for them in the
next few years.
To connect home users to the Inter-
net, the phone companies will have to act
as ISPs for their DSL customers, or else
they’ll have to strike deals with ISPs will-
ing to invest in DSL. But there’s a prob-
lem: Many ISPs don’t have enough back-
bone bandwidth to support hundreds of
customers with
Paradyna's HotWir* DSL modani.
tions. DSL is faster than the backbone
link that connects many ISPs to the In-
ternet. A single 1.5-Mbps T1 link to the
Internet can support 53 V.34 modem
users or 24 ISDN users — but only one
DSL user. ISPs and phone companies
that are serious about providing Internet
access via DSL will have to spend con-
siderable money to upgrade their Inter-
net links.
226 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
CopyrjghtGd m.
LOOKING FORWARD
The phone companies may find them-
selves under pressure to adopt DSL
sooner than they would like. DSL oper-
ates over dry pair lines, dedicated end-
to-end copper lines that do not pass
through the phone company’s switching
equipment. Dry pair lines are less expen-
sive than ordinary phone lines, so the
phone companies don’t make much
money on them. In the past, dry pair
lines have been used primarily for dedi-
cated intercom circuits and for low-speed
point-to-point data links.
InterAccess, a Chicago-based ISP, is
leasing dry pair lines from the local
phone company and providing customers
with its own DSL service. For a $1,500
up-front cost (which includes the DSL
equipment) and $200 per month, Inter-
Access provides its customers with full-
time 1.5-Mbps Internet access. While too
costly for most home users, this pricing is
very competitive compared with leased
line rates that many businesses use for In-
ternet access.
There’s nothing keeping any ambi-
tious company from ordering dry pair
lines and providing its own DSL equip-
ment for remote-access or LAN-linking
duties, and many DSL equipment ven-
dors are actively encouraging users to do
just that. If the idea of private DSL net-
works running over phone company-pro-
vided dry pairs takes off, the phone com-
panies may find themselves relegated to
being the wiring hub for a large number of
private data networks.
CMUMODIMS
A telephone company might offer DSL
to your home, but the local cable televi-
sion company can counter with cable
modem service. That could be a powerful
alternative, but the service requires a
large investment in a geography-span-
ning infrastructure. In most of the cur-
rent plans, cable modem service is deliv-
ered to your home as an Ethernet
connection. Like Ethernet, the cable
modem system is shared, so even though
you might have 10 Mbps of bandwidth
available, the engineering design of the
system and the online habits of your
neighbors will determine your actual
throughput.
Prototype services, such as ©Home
Network, are becoming available in small
pockets of the U.S. In some of its trial
runs, @Home Network is using cable
modems supplied by LANcity Corp., a di-
vision of Bay Networks. We saw a demon-
stration of the service at the company's
headquarters in Mountain View, Califor-
nia. The demonstration service seemed
fast and reliable, though it was slow in ac-
cessing some Web sites initially. ©Home’s
content is basically a beefed-up Web site,
larded with videos and graphics-rich
pages. One of the selling points of
©Home and other
cable services is sup-
posed to be its local-
ized content, but the
demo site we saw in-
cluded little more in
this respect than restau-
rant listings. Rates will vary
by location, but in its
trial locations ©Home
charges a $150 start-up
fee and $34.95 per month for unlimited
access— a good deal for high-speed Inter-
net access, if you can get it and if it works.
Another high-profile experiment is
Time Warner’s RoadRunner cable
modem service, which rolled out in
Akron, Ohio, last fall. The service, which
costs $39.95 per month for unlimited use,
attracted a reported 1,000 subscribers
out of 300,000 eligible homes. Initial user
reports indicate that service quality fluc-
tuates from very fast to teeth-grindingly
slow during peak hours.
Cable networks
are, in many ways,
the opposite of the
telephone network.
They are primarily
one-way systems,
although some
cable systems have
a slow data reverse
channel that is used
for pay-per-view
program selection
and various types
of validation data. Users might have spe-
cial-service set-top boxes that can re-
spond to broadcast instructions and ap-
pear to provide a customized connection,
but typically there are no discrete circuits
to each subscriber’s home, as there are in
the telephone network.
Estimates vary, but about 90 percent
of the nation’s existing cable systems are
one-way. Internet access requires a two-
way link, which poses a major problem
for the one-way cable systems. Some
cable modem systems will use an analog
modem attached to a regular phone line
as the reverse channel back to the cable
company. But that approach has several
obvious limitations. For homes with a
single phone line, it means the phone will
be tied up when the user is connected to
the Internet. Also, using a modem for the
reverse channel means that out-
bound data will still travel
at 33.6 Kbps, at most.
The answer — albeit
an expensive one — is
to replace existing
coaxial cable with hy-
brid fiber/coax (HFC).
In addition to a one-way
coaxial radio-frequency
path, for compatibility
with existing cable TV, HFC provides a
two-way fiber-optic cable that can be used
for voice, data, and video services. Con-
verting to HFC is not cheap, since it in-
volves installing new cable, which is a very
labor-intensive process. Many cable oper-
ators are faced with having to replace
their old coax as it nears the end of its ser-
vice life anyway, and for them, it would
make sense to replace it with HFC.
HFC-based cable modems provide a
point-to-point link, much like the link
provided by DSL. So the company giving
you cable modem
service is going to
have to install or
arrange to provide
a backbone service
to connect you to
your office or the
Internet. There are
now several cable
modem manufac-
turers — including
prominent vendors
such as Motorola,
LANcity, and Scientific Atlanta — each
with its own proprietary way of doing
things, but interoperability between
vendors isn't a burning issue, since the
cable company will supply the equip-
ment. Cable modem systems have
promise, but it will take many years for
many of us to see it. □
Bay Networks’ LANcity cable modem.
MARCH 25. 1W7 PC MAGAZINE 227
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THE HEARJ OF COMMUNICATION*
CIRCLE 049 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Cop/righted material
OND
p WITH BILL GATES
&G0RD0N MOORE
The Internet is the place where all the neat new things are happening.
-BILL GATES, Microsoft
PC Magazine doesn’t often run interviews anymore.
We simply have too many products we want to test at PC Labs,
too many technologies we want to delve deeply into, and too
many comparisons we want to run.
But on the occasion of our fifteenth anniversary, we decided
to do something special. In our very first issue, the magazine ran
an interview with Bill Gates called “The Man Behind the Ma-
chine?’’, as well as a “Boca Diary’’ recounting a visit to IBM PC
headquarters (then in Boca Raton), which included interviews
with the original PC team.
This time out, we turned to two of the pioneers of the in-
dustry. Bill Gates, of course, remains one of the most impor-
tant people in the PC industry, still “the man behind the ma-
chine.’’ His company, Microsoft, has gone from being a
supplier of DOS and languages for the original IBM PC to be-
coming the largest force in the PC and software industry. In
the intervening years. Gates himself has become the richest
man in the world.
Gordon Moore founded Intel along with Bob Noyce and
chaired the company through its growth as it became not only
the leading microprocessor maker but also the leading force in
personal computer hardware.
Both are not only company leaders but also technologists.
Gates wrote early versions of BASIC for the PC and other ma-
chines, and Moore ran the labs where such things as the inte-
grated circuit, the memory chip, and later the microprocessor
first became commercial products. And in their interviews, con-
ducted early this year by editor-in-chief Michael J. Miller, both
men talked eloquently not only about the past and present of the
i ;
iH
PC industry but also about its future.
More of Bill Gates and Gordon Moore Join us online to read extended
versiorts of the Gates and Moore interviews and to cotTxnent on their predictions in our
discussion forum. www.pcm»|Xom.
. . .So that carries us well into the next century, and at that time we'll be able to
put-1 don’t know, several hundred million or a billion transistors on a logic chip.
-GORDON MOORE, Intel
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 229
LOOKING BEYOND
PC Fifteen years is a
surprising amount
of time in some
ways. Obviously,
the PC industry
goes back further,
but the IBM PC changed it a lot. It changed
the way people thought about computers.
BILL GATES: It absolutely did. The power of
the machine (because it was the first 16-
bit machine), the endorsement by IBM of
using a personal computer, and then the
critical mass of software, distribution, and
peripherals that came along with that
make it the biggest milestone in the
history of personal computing. It was a
sea change.
MIUSTONIS
PC: There are some critical points in the
history of the industry where if something
had happened differently the whole in-
dustry might have changed somewhat.
Was there one crucial point, say, in the
relationship with IBM when Microsoft
might not have been as dominant a com-
pany as it is today if IBM or Microsoft had
done something differently?
business activities they had there. After
that, the group at IBM we were working
with was so large that there were many
projects to replace Microsoft, where IBM
wanted to do those things internally.
There was a major milestone where
IBM adopted a strategy called SAA (Sys-
tems Application Architecture) and de-
cided everything on all its computers
should be more consistent. Unfortunate-
ly, this meant that the mainframe graphics
group, which was in England and had a
thing called GDDM, got to say the new
PC operating system should use their
standards instead of what we'd been
doing with Windows. If OS/2 had been
built to be a superset of Windows then,
OS/2 could have caught on earlier. And
there were many points where we tried to
get things moving in that direction.
A big milestone was that the folks at
IBM didn’t trust the 386. They didn’t
think it would get done. So we encour-
aged Compaq to go ahead and just do a
386 machine. That was the first time peo-
ple started to get a sense that it wasn’t just
IBM setting the standards, that this indus-
try had a life of its own, and that compa-
ACKNOWUOeiNe THI INTWNIT
PC: You had a bit of a scare, a bit of a
change of direction, when other compa-
nies saw the Internet and started doing
things such as browsers before you did. In
some respects, you changed a lot of strate-
gies around the last few years. What did it
feel like to see other companies doing
things ahead of you?
GATES: Well, 1 think the Internet is proba-
bly the most dramatic example of where
we’ve had to change strategy. But I think
our ability to stay ahead throughout the
years has been due to our flexibility.
In the case of the Internet, it wasn’t
any existing companies that were doing
good things. It was the phenomenon in-
side the universities and Netscape, which
was started by people who had been part
of that university phenomenon. So as that
wave got going, that’s where they were.
The Internet was fascinating for us be-
cause. as early as late 1994, we actually
shipped an add-on to Word to do HTML
support. And we had started building
TCP/IP into the system and decided that
that was going to be the standard proto-
The Internet is still full of surprises. It's not as if you
say, 'Okay, we're done with the Internet.'
GATES: We’re certainly a strong company.
1 mean, we don’t like the word dominant.
The first milestone was when IBM came
out to work with us. It is important to re-
member that the PC project inside IBM
was not an important project, not a major
project, not considered something that re-
ally would affect the company. This was a
little foray by a small group, and IBM was
more interested in proving it could do
something quick than exactly what hap-
pened with the product.
So it was rather stunning when this PC
later took over the word processing group,
the Display Writer, and all the other small-
nies like Compaq and Intel were in there
doing new things that people should pay
attention to.
Then the next milestone was when the
IBM crew got really confident they could
do the software themselves. And so they
kept the OS/2 name and didn't end up
using all the work we’d been doing to
make OS/2 really strong, which became
Windows NT.
col. Every time we’d go out and do an
Internet retreat, we’d increase our view of
what Internet things we wanted to do. But
they were never the top priority: Getting
Windows 95 done was the top priority;
getting Windows NT to critical mass in
the market was the top priority.
And it wasn’t until really late '95 that
we looked up and said, “Wow, the Inter-
net is the vision of PCs as a communica-
St30 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
LOOKING BEYOND
tion tool coming true.” It was coming true
with protocols that were 20 years old. We
wouldn’t have guessed that this would be
the case, and some nice things have been
added on top of it. But fundamentally, the
cost of communication coming down had
led, at least in pockets, to this critical mass
being achieved.
And so we said, “Let’s make it the top
priority.” And “What would we change if
it’s the top priority? How would MSN
change? How would our browser strategy
change? How would our server strategy
change? What new groups, like Merchant
Server, would be put together?" So that
was a pretty big shift.
Now our employees, because they’d
been out surfing the Net, were pretty
much in tune with what needed to be
done. So a lot of good ideas came along,
and it took only a month or so before we
had an internal plan. And then Decem-
ber ’95 was when we articulated to the
world all the steps we were going to take
during ’96. which we were able to exe-
cute better than I would have expected.
The Internet is still full of surprises. It’s
MARCH 25. 1«7 PC MAGAZINE 231
Cep) 1 1
-iai
ILLUSnUTION 6V JANET WOOLLEY
LOOKING BEYOND
not as if you say, “Okay, we're done with
the Internet.”
The Internet is the place where all the
neat new things are happening, whether it's
multicast, better video compression, secu-
rity technologies, 3-D browsing, personal-
ization servers, server development, or site
tracking. Anyway, there's more to be done
on the Internet than has been done to date.
The success of Windows NT, the suc-
cess of Office, the success of Windows 95:
Those give us a good basis to build on be-
cause our strategy is to integrate Internet
functionality into those products when-
ever possible, and that's a primary thrust.
So when somebody buys a PC and wants
to use the Internet, we want that built-in
so they don't have to go out and try to in-
tegrate another piece of software.
PC Is predicting when this stuff is going to
happen getting easier or harder?
GATES: Well, as Microsoft has gotten larg-
er we’ve gotten the ability to fund a pure
R & D group. So we can have very risky
products that you can’t predict a date for.
Take voice recognition. If you go over
to the lab, you'll meet some guys over
there who think, “Hey, in two years — no
problem.” Now because it’s their job.
they're allowed to be optimistic. But in
our business plans, you won't find that de-
pendency written in. And we’re willing to
fund that work for however long it takes.
We have more luxury in being able to
pursue a longer time horizon and there-
fore a more uncertain one. We can even
have research projects that don't pan out.
PC: Windows was later than you thought;
so was Windows 95. For years, you have
talked about getting software on a more
predictable schedule. Is that getting easi-
er to do? Obviously, you can do things
like deliver pieces over the Internet now.
Is that getting easier? Harder?
GATES: I think there are groups like the
Windows NT group that have been deliv-
ering on a very predictable schedule. It al-
ways depends on whether you set the
schedule as the key thing or whether you
pick a very ambitious set of features. In
that case, you’re going to need to take the
time to do the beta test. During that beta
test, you might hear about some additions
or improvements that are worth making.
Nowadays, it's pretty nice because we
have two ways of getting products out.
One is to get them out on the Internet in a
component-by-component-type fashion.
And then the other is to take all those
advances, really test them as a full sys-
tem, get the user interface to be nicely
integrated, go out to developers and ex-
plain how that's going to be out there in
very large numbers, and then make a very
large release. Windows NT 4 was very
much like that. We have upcoming ver-
sions of Windows that’ll be like that as
well. So you really get the best of both
worlds.
COMINO OF CAIRO
PC: A while back, you talked about an
object-oriented system that you called
Cairo, and at one point it was going to be
a product. Now it’s a set of technologies,
some of which are here, some of which
aren’t. The overall combination seems as
if it's a long way off. Is it still a goal?
GATES: Almost all of it is here today. And
like all good things in technology, people
take it for granted.
Object orientation is in the system.
You can put an object of any type in a
Word document or an Excel spreadsheet.
The standards for how you do that are
very straightforward. Eight years ago, we
were talking about how that was going to
be a very tough thing, and now it’s just the
way software is developed. It's compo-
nents that fit into containers, and it makes
things very extensible.
We've come up with features such as
the Microsoft Foundation Classes, which
make it quite easy for programmers to do
those things. For Visual Basic program-
mers, they just take it for granted that if
they want to do a Rich Form, they can go
to a third party and get a control and
embed that control into a form. The rea-
son that works is object orientation.
The only thing out of all that vision
that's not in the marketplace is the rich
file/system directory combination that is
now part of the NT 5 product. We actual-
ly put a developers’ release of that into
people’s hands in November in a profes-
sional developers’ conference we had.
Later this year, that'll go into beta testing.
Having the rich storage system with
the directory — that was part of that Cairo
vision. Although a lot of the Cairo things
have been done, that’s the one that we’re
still working on. Today, when you think
about storage, you think about storing
messages as one thing or addresses as an-
other thing or user objects and machine
objects as still another thing. Anyway,
there are just too many ways that people
are storing things and having to learn util-
ities. different security, different replica-
tion, different enumeration, query
There are two grand unifications tak-
ing place: All the presentation is being
unified around a sort of super browser
that takes over the shell, and then all the
storage is being unified around a sort of
super file system that takes over a lot of
those functions. The storage unification is
the harder of the two, but they’re both
very important and will make the system
more powerful and easier to work with.
WINDOWS APto
PC: You look at Windows today and Win-
dows is now available in various flavors
from CE up to NT Server and in various
kinds of devices. Are there limits as to
how far you can adapt Windows? At
some point, do you need to transition to a
completely new set of APIs?
GATES: NT is the only from-scratch com-
mercial operating system that's been done
in the last decade, and it was done based
on the latest ideas of how you make things
multiprocessor and very extensible. We
put more money into advancing NT than
is put into any operating system, whether
it's MVS or all the different flavors of
Unix put together. That’s a very fresh
piece of technology, and this year it’ll get
things such as clustering and 64-bit.
We have more luxury in being able to pursue
a longer-term horizon and a more uncertain one.
232 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25 . 1997
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SETTING A NEW STANDARD FOR VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS
COREL
The Best in Enterprise
Communications
LOOKING BEYOND
The question of whether PCs can take
on the toughest computing tasks will be
answered once and for all. People still see
Unix as being higher-end or mainframes
as being higher-end, but this is the year
when the pieces fall into place in both
hardware and software advances. NT will
be the foundation for the next decade. It’s
a very flexible base to be building on.
Over time, a lot of the operating sys-
tem will become visual recognition and
speech recognition; actually, the logic rep-
resenting those very advanced input sys-
tems will be even more complex than
what you think of the operating system
being today. You’ll still have that operat-
ing system there. In fact, it will be even
better than what we have now, but this
whole new element will come into focus
on the kind of adaptation that’s necessary
for the rich input systems.
THI NHO FOR SPUD
PC: Machines are getting faster and faster.
You have competitors pushing the idea
that with the Internet and other types of
networks you won’t need all that new
processing power and all the operating-
system complexity. Yet if you look at the
processor road map you’ll see that we’re
going to have a fair amount of processing
power. There are no signs of that slowing
any time soon. Do we need the process-
ing power that’s going to be there?
GATES: I think the biggest use of process-
ing power will be speech recognition,
speech synthesis, visual recognition,
handwriting recognition, and pattern
recognition — that is, noticing what you’re
interested in and learning from that.
Those are all very deep problems
where more RAM and more MIPS make
a lot of difference. In the near term, just
moving up to having MPEG2, 3-D graph-
ics, better video — those will help a lot.
Just one point about complexity:
There’s a pretty important change coming
this year when we allow you with the PC to
keep software up on the server, but from a
performance point of view it will actually
get pulled down onto your disk. It’s part of
this Zero Administration Windows thing.
Anyway, that’s just one of many sim-
plifications that we’ll be going through.
Although underneath, the PC is going to
have a lot of code working on your behalf,
we can hide the complexity. There's a lot
of stuff you see in the file system that you
shouldn’t have to worry about.
But processing cycles are going to be
there. The question is how creative we
can be about taking advantage of them.
That’s a question for the whole industry.
TOP TCN TICHNOLOOIES
PC: As part of this issue, one of the things
we’re doing is picking ten technologies we
think will have the biggest impact on the in-
dustry in the next 15 years. What would you
say are the technologies you expect to have
the most impact over the next 15 years?
GATES: Speech recognition, natural-
language understanding, automatic
learning, flat-screen displays, optic fiber,
the continuation of Moore’s Law. Those
are the key ones.
PC: Fifteen years from now, will there still
be a concept of the PC? Or will PC tech-
nology be in so many different devices that
people won’t even think about it?
GATES: We’ll certainly have a device with a
large enough screen that you sit down and
read information from and create infor-
mation on.
Now anywhere you go, if you find a
screen you can just log in and your per-
sonal environment will be there. If you’re
in a waiting room in an office, they’ve got
a little flat screen there you can just pick
up, log on to, and use. You won't neces-
sarily always have to take hardware with
you, because the network will retain the
things that you care about.
Computing will be ubiquitous. You’ll
have the pocket device and the wall-size
device, and (depending on how you set
things up) you’ll be able to talk to the
computer when you’re not really paying
attention to it. So the term PC will call up
a different image than it does now. But
what you thought of 15 years ago when
you said the term PC and what you think
of now are vastly different. These sleek
little notebooks with so much power that
people carry around are just so radically
different from the Compaq sewing ma-
chine that's less than 15 years old.
IXCrriMENT FROM SOFTWARE
PC: One last thing. In that very first inter-
view in the first issue of PC Magazine, you
talked about how personally excited you
get when you complete a project. Do you
still get that excited from software, or
have you done so many programs now
that it’s not quite the same thing?
GATES: I think my job is more interesting
now than ever because of the incredible
impact that PCs are having. Whether it’s
empowering people or letting them com-
municate in a new way — the big-change
element in business, entertainment, edu-
cation — the PC, connected up to the
Internet, is thriving on all that. It’s very
exciting.
In terms of actual product creation, we
pick exactly the people who love creating
these products, building them, and listen-
ing to the customers. I’m at a different
level of management where I just get to
feed in some ideas, give some feedback,
and help make sure that what the groups
are doing is very complementary. So I get
a little bit of pleasure out of the broad
range of products we’re doing.
I do envy, sometimes, the people who
get to come in every day and just work on
a product, craft that product, and make it
great. I can see that kind of excitement.
And that’s the excitement that leads to
the very best work. It’s where people push
their limits and come up with new ideas.
So my job is to create a place where it’s
really fun and really easy to come in and do
that. I get a lot of pleasure out of sitting
down with these groups. That’s why I
make sure the majority of my time is spent
with product groups. That’s what 1 like,
and that’s where I think I can make a con-
tribution. So the fun is still there, and soft-
ware creation is still as much a mix of
artistry and science as it has ever been. □
Software creation is still as much a mix of artistry
and science as it has ever been.
MARCH 25. 1W PC MAGAZINE 235
LOOKING BEYOND
eORDON MOORE urn
PC: While you were
still working at
Fairchild Semicon-
ductor, you wrote
a paper in which
“Moore's Law"
was mentioned.
Of course, you didn't call it Moore's Law
at that point.
MOORE: No. certainly not.
PC: But you were talking about the dou-
bling of transistors at a predictable rate.
MOORE: Every year, at that point.
PC: Later, it became once every 18
months.
MOORL' Well, I really said every two years.
That was the fairly early days of integrat-
ed circuits. The most complicated chip
around was still a laboratory model at
Fairchild at that time, which had about 60
components: that was transistors plus re-
sistors there. I was writing an article for
the 35th anniversary edition of another
magazine — Electronics — and they wanted
me to predict the future of semiconductor
components for the next ten years. And I
was convinced the integrated circuit was
going to be important, because you could
begin to see this real impact on lowering
the cost, so I looked back. We'd been
about doubling every year since the first
planar transistor — I call that Year Zero,
1959 — with 1 transistor. We'd gotten up
to 64 in six years — in 1965 — so I said,
“Aha, it's been doubling every year.” I
just said. “Okay, it's going to continue to
do that for ten years."
So 1 extrapolated a factor of a thou-
sandfold increase in the complexity of cir-
cuits, not expecting any real accuracy but
wanting to get this idea of the way the
components were going to be used. For
that ten years, we followed that doubling
every year really quite precisely.
Somebody else dubbed it Moore's
Law. I think it was Carver Mead from Cal
Tech. He tends to do things like that.
POUNOINC INTU
PC: You and Robert Noyce left Fairchild
in '68 to found Intel. What did you want
Intel to be back then?
MOORE: We thought we saw in semicon-
ductor memory an opportunity to build a
general-purpose function of essentially
arbitrary complexity that could shoot at a
fairly big established market, replacing
cores in particular.
And we chose new technology that we
thought would be specifically appropriate
for memory. Actually, I called this our
“Goldilocks” strategy, in retrospect. We
chose three technologies. One was a
Schottky bipolar technology, and our first
product was actually a 64-bit Schottky
bipolar memory. We chose silicon-gate
MOS. Up to that time, silicon gate had
been demonstrated in individual devices,
but it had never been put into production,
and it had a lot of attractive features. And
then we were going to make a multichip
vantage there. The multichip thing was
too hard — we still don't do it, at least not
cost-effectively. But the silicon gate was
just right. While we were focused on it, we
put all of our energy into solving the few
really tough technical problems to make it
a production technology.
So we had a long time there where we
had an opportunity to expand in what
turns out to be the mainstream of the
technology, without much direct competi-
tion, It worked out just right.
Also at that time, after we got the first
few memory products out, we did this cal-
culator project where we changed the de-
sign from a bunch of custom circuits —
which we couldn't begin to handle with
our limited engineering resources — to the
idea of a microprocessor (Ted Hoffs sug-
gestion). And we saw we could do a lot of
other things too.
MICKOntOCISSOM
PC When the microprocessor started to
get used in personal computers (1975 and
then on out), did you have any idea of
how prevalent these things would be?
MOORE: Certainly 1 didn't, and if anybody
else around here did they kept it to them-
selves. You know the first MITS — I guess
We're getting down to the point where the
subatomic nature of matter starts to be a real limit.
assembly of these things, so we could pack
a lot of memory into a small area.
It's the Goldilocks strategy because it
turns out that the bipolar was too easy — it
worked so well that it was easy for the es-
tablished companies to copy it. There
weren't any tough technological prob-
lems. so we didn't have a long-term ad-
you'd call it a PC now — the Altair; it was
just a hobby device where the inputs were
toggle switches and the outputs were
LEDs. You could demonstrate the way a
computer worked, but it was a tough way
to do any practical computing. And 1 even
turned down the idea of a home computer
in that time period. One of our engineers
236 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
LOOKING BEYOND
came up with the idea that you could build
a computer and you could put it in the
home, and I kind of asked him what it was
good for, and the only application I got
back was that the housewife could put her
recipes on it, I could imagine my wife sit-
ting there with a computer by the stove! It
didn’t really look very practical.
In fact, even when Steve Jobs came
over and showed us what was going on at
Apple, you know, I viewed it as just one
more of the hundreds of applications that
existed for microprocessors; I didn't ap-
preciate that it was a significant new
direction.
PC: Go on another three years or so: It's
1980. IBM is around and looking for
a microprocessor for what would be-
come the PC, and obviously you guys
sold IBM the 8088. How important was 5
that sale? |
I
MOORE: That was a period of time when |
we were competing very strongly with |
Motorola for design wins. Motorola had a |
good part out on the market, and we were ^
‘ ial
MARCH 2.1. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 237
LOOKING BEYOND
concerned that this company was going to
run away with a whole generation of de-
signs. So we put together a very aggressive
marketing program, where we wanted to
get 2,000 design wins. I think it was in the
’79-’80 time period, over something like a
year span, and we went aggressively out
to pitch every design we could.
Well, one of those designs happened to
be the IBM PC. In fact, the salesman who
was calling on the account wasn't even told
what the project was; it was, you know,
cover the conference room with a blanket
in between and ask questions. You would
answer the questions but never see what
the product being worked on was. Of
course, eventually we found out it was the
PC. But even IBM expected only to sell a
few hundred thousand of them over the
lifetime of the product. And while we
thought it was a significant design win, it
was one of something like 3,000 that we had
in that time. I certainly didn’t realize that it
was going to be the future of Intel, even
when the IBM PC got announced.
ntOCISSOR CHANGU
PC In the late eighties, early nineties,
there was a lot of talk about RISC proces-
sors. You developed a few RISC proces-
sors too — the 860, the 960. Were you wor-
ried that the jc86 processor was sort of
older technology and that this was going
to surpass it somehow?
MOORE: You know, we considered it prin-
cipally marketing hype, but that was a
tough sell, trying to convince people that
RISC was marketing, not technology.
There were some things you could rec-
ognize. Clearly, if you threw everything
away and started with a clean sheet of
paper again, which was what the RISC
people got to do, you could avoid making
some of the mistakes that were done in
some of the early architectures: putting in
more registers, making all the instructions
the same length, things like that. But we
had this tremendous advantage: all of the
software people had bought that ran on
our instruction set. We were convinced
that was a very important advantage.
Everything that came along (except
throwing away some of the warts on the
existing architecture) we could take ad-
vantage of. We could make superscalars;
we could pipeline; we could do all of these
things that were getting the performance.
It may have cost us some more transistors,
but as long as we had a far higher unit vol-
ume than any of the RISC processors, we
could afford to put more transistors in to
maintain the compatibility.
PC: Basically, since the 386, the architec-
ture of the basic chip hasn't changed that
much. The instruction set, until MMX,
didn't change at all.
MOORE: The instruction set has stayed the
same, but we've added a lot of other
things. The 486 put the floating point on
there. All the pipelining and superscalar
and that kind of stuff has come on. We call
that part of the architecture, even though
the instruction set stays the same. MMX,
of course, is a change in that.
PC: Now you’re talking about VLIW and
64-bit stuff.
MOORE: We're not talking about that at all.
I mean, we’re doing a 64-bit program, but
we're not describing what it is.
PC: Does the instruction set have to
change?
MOORE: Sure, 64 bits means new instruc-
tions. But it will still run the older soft-
ware compatibly. You know, one thing we
have is the idea of carrying a compatible
family along. Even if we have to put two
processors on the chip, one 32-bit and one
64-bit, it's going to run that old software
effectively.
MANUFACTURING LIMITS
PC Let's talk about manufacturing. When
you do the Moore’s Law charts, you have
all of this wonderful doubling every 18
months or so. How long do you see that
going on?
MOORE: Actually, there's still quite a bit we
can squeeze out of the technology, and I'm
amazed at how effectively people have
been able to continue spinning the next
versions. There’s kind of been a genera-
tion of technology every three years,
where essentially we double the density
every three years. The minimum dimen-
sion multiplies by about 0.7, and 0.7
squared is 0.49; you get the same thing in
half the area. And now, for Intel, our lead-
ing production technology is 0.35-micron,
and 0.25 is moving into production as soon
as we can get it cleaned up. That’ll be the
workhorse in a couple of years. And that’s
still straight optical lithography. 0.18,
which is kind of the next step, looks as if it
can be done optically without any dramat-
ic changes in what we’re doing.
The step after that to me looks a little
tougher, but the guys who have to do it
don’t seem to be intimidated by it at the
moment. The reason is that we’ll probably
do it with the so-called 193-nanometer
light source — the excimer laser — and do
0.18 with that. The wavelength and the
minimum dimension are about the same
optically; that’s not too bad.
To do 0.13 in the 193 is a much tougher
deal, because you’re operating quite a bit
below the wavelength. So you probably
have to do all of the tricks available — you
know, phase shift masks and this kind of
stuff, multilayer resists — the ideas that exist
in the industry but are not a lot of fun. You
know, they’re not that well developed yet,
so there may be another light source that
lets us operate at a shorter wavelength.
The trouble is, if you go to a shorter
wavelength, you essentially run out of
transparent materials, so all the optics
have to be reflecting.
Beyond that, I guess when we get to an
all-reflective system we can go quite a bit
further. But we make a change from the
kind of lithography we’ve been doing for
the last dozen years when we abandon
transparent optical materials. That’s a
change, and it’s going to be an expensive
change at least. Then you eventually get
to some kind of a physical limit, and the
industry has argued about where that is
for some time. I think the consensus is it’s
I see the physical limits of chip design focusing
more innovation in other directions. ’’
238 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
LOOKING BEYOND
someplace between 0.05 and 0.1 microns
minimum dimension, and like most of
these limits it keeps pushing further away
as we get closer.
We're getting down to the point essen-
tially where the atomic nature of matter
starts to be a real limit when you get down
there. That’s a fairly fundamental limit. So
that carries us well into the next century. At
that time we’ll be able to put, I don’t know,
several hundred million or a billion transis-
PC: Holographic memory?
MOORE: Holography memory? I’m not
close enough to that. The densities people
talk about being able to achieve are phe-
nomenal: a lot of information storage. It’s
capable presumably of giving one of those
real qualitative leaps in the amount of stuff
that’s available. Something may come of
that. I’m not close enough. On the other
hand, the ability of the magnetic-disk peo-
Voice recognition will open computing to the 85
percent of people who are nonparticipants today.
tors on a logic chip. That leaves phenome-
nal room for the designers to innovate in
how they’re going to use those, so I don’t
see this as being the stopping of innovation
in the industry or anything. I just see it fo-
cusing more innovation in other directions,
so things will advance for a long time.
FUTURl TtCHNOLOOV
PC:: On the design end, a lot of people talk
about a lot of very different kinds of ways
of making semiconductors, whether galli-
um arsenide or multistate logic. Which, if
any, do you think are really important?
MOORE: Well, somebody once said, “Galli-
um arsenide is the material of the future
and always will be.” 1 spent a lot of money
on gallium arsenide in the sixties and got
convinced it was a fairly intractable mater-
ial. It’s neat for the front end of cellular
phones when you want a little bit of stuff
that’s high-performance, but it’s not going
to compete in the mainstream. You know,
we now do everything on 8-inch wafers —
nobody has seen an 8-inch wafer of gallium
arsenide. We’ll be at 12-inch wafers proba-
bly by the end of the century. People can’t
grow crystals that big in any of these other
materials! So I think the mainstream is
likely to be silicon-based forever.
PC: There’s a lot of talk about optoelectric
chips, using light more, and holographic
memory,
MOORE: I am not a real believer in optoelec-
tronic chips to do computing. But it’s inter-
esting for communications applications.
pie to continue to increase the density is
flabbergasting; that has moved at least as
fast as the semiconductor complexity. You
can get a 2.5-gig drive for 200-and-some
bucks now down at Fry’s [the Bay Area
electronics-superstore chain]! It’s absurd!
PC: What about some of the quantum
computing ideas?
MOORE: The quantum computing — that’s
a hot new one. Again, this is getting fur-
ther and further away from my area of ex-
pertise. I think quantum computing is a
very interesting concept. I think it has no
practical application whatsoever.
CHIPS IN HYUllS
PC: You talked about the “2011” chip.
MOORE: Oh, yeah, that was Andy [Grove j.
He gave a view of that at Comdex, and I
wouldn’t want to take credit for any of
that. [Joking:[ I think somebody got car-
ried away with his semi-log paper. They
were very aggressive extrapolations.
PC: So you think a 10-gigahertz chip with a
billion transistors on a 0.07-micron
process is
MOORE: By 2011, that’s asking for every-
thing to fall in line perfectly. A 10-giga-
hertz chip of that complexity, to keep the
power in anything reasonable and
tractable, is really tough. The power thing
really becomes a problem, and 1 consider
that one of our biggest challenges, partic-
ularly for laptop systems and cheap desk-
top systems. The power wants to go up to
hundreds of watts as you go in this direc-
tion (probably thousands of watts if we go
that far), and there aren’t simple systems
for taking that kind of power out.
1 start to understand why the mainframe
people used to circulate Freon and water-
cooled and the like. You really are pushing
the power as hard as you can, and I think
that’s going to limit these combinations.
PC; One way or another, 15 years from
now we’re going to have really powerful
chips compared with what we’ve got now,
right?
MOORE: Yeah. I’ll admit that.
PC: What do you think we’re going to
be doing?
MOORE [laughing]: That’s harder to an-
swer. 1 think there are some things that
are very attractive. You know the one I al-
ways come back to is good voice recogni-
tion. I really think a computer you can
talk to — it can understand your speech,
not only the words but also the meaning —
is going to change the way computing is
done, and I think that is the role that is
well worth shooting for.
That’s the kind of thing that is going to
open up computing to the 85 percent of the
people who are nonparticipants today.
That requires a lot of processing and a lot
of memory, but I really think it’s going to
be an attractive deal. You can ask your
computer to go out on the Net and get you
some information. Like, I would ask my
technical assistant to go out and get me the
data on such-and-such and have the com-
puter come back with it. I think that’s fan-
tastic. and I think it’s doable.
PC What about you? You had joked about
retiring. Are you going to retire, are you
here forever, or are you going to do what
Bob Noyce did with Sematech after he left?
MOORE: The last one: Heavens, no! I guess
Tm semiretired now; Tm a three-day-a-
weeker. But I can still keep up with a lot of
the stuff that’s going on — maintain my
touch with the excitement in the industry —
and boy, if the alternative is staying at home
and taking out the garbage. I’m going to
stick around here for a long time. □
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 239
^ -V T
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Copyrighted material
PC Tech
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PC TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS
Hie More Tiling Ghan^
Nine veterans share their views on the future
of programming.
Edited by Sharon Terdeman
N early everything about programming has changed in
the past 15 years — the operating environments, the
languages, the paradigms, and the systems them-
selves. But some factors seem to remain constant: the
struggle for cross-platform compatibility, the search
for the ideal language, and above all, the complexity
involved in producing robust, feature-rich, user-friendly software.
The truth is, the easier programs are to use, the more complexity is
usually hidden under the hood. And if history teaches us anything,
it’s that there is no magic bullet to change this. Just ask any veteran
programmer. We in fact asked nine veterans to give us their unique-
ly informed perspectives on the future of programming and software
development. Some are PC Magazine regulars and others are not,
but all have been instrumental in shaping the industry. We’re sure
you’ll find their visions both instructive and entertaining.
N THIS SECTION
TUTOR Our exploration into
the world of Visual C++ pro-
gramming continues as we
finally get our sample tic-tac-
toe game program to draw X’s
and O’s in the correct boxes on the game
board. Page 317.
POWER PROGRAMMING Tei-
net has become one of the more
important protocols on the
Internet, especially for letting
Webmasters manage their sites.
This time we explain the protocol and show
you how to program a 32-bit command line
Windows 95 telnet client. Page 333.
S INTERNET TOOLS Tradition-
ally, the simplest way for Web
servers to retrieve information
from browsers has been to use
CGI. Here, we discuss alterna-
tives that offer more power through using
Web server APIs. Page 349.
UnUTIES Are you sick of
seeing the same old Windows
logo on the background of
clouds and blue sky when you
start up your system? Logo-
Mania, this issue's free utility, is the remedy
for which you've been searching. It lets you
choose your own image and animation for
the start-up screen. Page 355.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE In PC Solutions, we
tell you how to dual-boot between Win-
dows 95 and DOS, provide some useful
information concerning the Windows 95
start-up disk, reveal how to delete OS/2
network files in order to save space, explain
the compatibility problems with serial date
numbers between Ouattro Pro and Word-
Perfect, provide a couple tools that make it
easier to manipulate the data in your Micro-
soft Access database, and more. Page 361.
PC TECH ONLINE All of the files mentioned in the
PC Tech section are available online from our Web
site, at www.pcmag.com. Go to the bottom of any
page and choose Download from the
navigabon bar. Then choose either PC
MagazineUtilitesorPCTech Archives,
where you can download 2\P archive
files containing all PC Tech files.
niif.pciuG.nii
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 243
Copyrighted material
If you find yourself
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Copyrighted material
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Copyrighted material
Mike
Latschislaw
finally found
a monitor
as good as
the games
he designs.
Over at the JVC games division
the)’ look to Mike Latschislaw to make
their games come alive. But while he's
doing it, Mike looks to something
else. The new 17PX monitor from
Hansol.
Because according to Mike, no
other monitor sets up as easily, has as
many controls (20 on-screen set-
tings), is as practical to use. and with
its radical, modern design, is just such
a pleasure to look at.
So next time you’ve got a game on
the screen, think of the guy who
designs them. Then think of the
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from Hansol.
Because when it<omes
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Z Hansol
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CIRCLE 113 ON READER SERVICE CARD
PC TECH
Programmers ’ Perspectives
Douglas Boling
T hose who forget history are doomed to
repeal it— or something like that. What-
ever the case, to make any kind of guess
at what the future holds for this chaotic indus-
try, it helps to look at the past. Over the years.
I've developed a few guidelines that seem to
work when predicting the future of the per-
sonal computer industry. So instead of making
specific predictions, I think it's better — and
safer — to talk about the guidelines I use when
attempting to understand what is going on in
our little comer of the world.
• Over time, the PC industry always migrates
to one standard platform. While folks love to
talk about multiple platforms coexisting in
harmony, software companies have a hard
“While folks love to talk about
multiple platforms coexisting
in harmony,
software
companies
have a hard
enough time developing for
one platform.”
enough time developing for one platform, let
alone two. Even when a company develops
for more than one platform, one will be the
original platform and the other the "ported
to" platform: the product on the secondary
platform will always lag behind the original in
features and schedule.
• The speed of software is a hardware prob-
lem. This statement — heretical to hardware
engineers — must be accepted along with
Moore's law, which defines increases in com-
puting speed. Software engineers are only
being smart by anticipating and utilizing the
power of next year's box when writing soft-
ware this year. When Moore’s law does not
apply, however, this observation doesn’t work.
For example, programs need to be much
smaller if they are ever going to be down-
loaded interactively from the Internet
through a 33.6-Kbps modem.
• Never believe the pundits who tell you they
know what programming language you will
be using in two years. Remember when folks
said the language everyone would be using
would be Ada? After all, the government de-
manded it! What about the folks last year who
pitched C++ as the language of the future?
Have you noticed that they are the ones
teaching Java classes this year?
• Users don’t care about technology, only
about solutions. I define users as "normal
humans,” not the techie, computer-literate
power users programmers are tempted to
develop for. 32-bit means nothing to users.
Neither does multithreaded. Users care about
features and speed. If using advanced tech-
niques helps, great. Just don't expect users to
like an application or operating system simply
becau.se it uses some advanced programming
technique.
• The Intel 386 instruction set is the standard
byte-code set for the personal computer in-
dustry. Why should anyone run off and write
in some mythical Java byte-code set when
most of the software ever written by humans
is written in 386 (or 8086 subset) instructions?
When someone says Java byte codes, think
Esperanto.
Okay, that last point is more of a prediction
than a guideline. I had to throw one in. The fu-
ture of the PC industry looks bright. As the
man says — enjoy the ride.
Douglas Boling is an electrical engineer, a
contributing editor of PC Magazine, and the
author of more than 30 PC Magazine utilities.
He started working with personal computers
20 years ago when he bought a KIM I micro-
computer. Since then, Doug has owned and
programmed many personal computers, in-
cluding a Commodore PET, a Macintosh, and
quite a few IBM PC compatibles. He lives and
works in San Jose.
Alan Cooper
T he most difficult task facing the program-
mer in fin de siecle Silicon Valley isn’t
grokking the Web or coping with Micro-
soft — it’s knowing how to create software that
makes users happy and productive.
Programmers are skilled at using complex
and difficult tools to create powerful pro-
grams. Unfortunately, many such programs
also end up with complex and difficult user in-
terfaces. and modern users don't have the
time or inclination to learn to use them. And
if the interface is too difficult to learn or use.
all of that power isn’t very effective, because
the users can't apply it. A simpler interface
offering fewer but more appropriate features
is usually pierceived by users as being more
powerful. And if the simpler interface makes
users more effective, then it really is more
powerful, in practical effect.
Today, most software is built from a docu-
ment variously called a feature specification,
a marketing-requirements document, or a
product spec. This document is a comprehen-
sive list of the features the product must in-
clude. It frequently omits any discussion of
how those features will be presented to the
user. If the specification does mention the in-
terface, it rarely goes beyond "style guide” re-
quirements for conventional menus, toolbars,
and dozens of forms, and it keeps to a strict
one-dialog-per-function design attitude.
Typically, though software built from this
sort of spec may get the job done, support costs
are high, job dissatisfaction common, and the
resultant staff turnover frequent. Such spec
documents allow programmers to build pro-
grams. but they don’t ensure that such products
are usable, effective, or well liked.
The reason for this failure is that rather than
being the result of a design process, the spec
document is the result of a process that is just a
preliminary step to the design process. When a
community decides to build a hospital, for ex-
ample, it hires an architectural firm. The first
step the architects take is to create a list of the
hospital's requirements: How many patients it
must support and how many operating rooms;
whether or not it needs special facilities for
emergency or intensive care. Only after this list
has been carefully scrutinized by all parties does
the acti4al process of architectural design begin;
the requirements list is a source document for
this process, not its end result.
By contrast, in the world of software devel-
opment, the requirements — or spec — docu-
ment isn\ treated as input to the design process
but as the ultimate output! It is as though the
“A simpler interface
offering fewer but more
y appropriate
features
is usually
perceived
by the user as being more
powerful.”
building contractors were handed a typed list
reading "120 beds, 3 operating rooms, emer-
gency care," and told to build a hospital the
community could be proud of. To their credit,
programmers work wonders with what they
are given, but the next few years will see a
general dissatisfaction with such contractor-
designed software.
In the future, instead of a feature-specifica-
tion list, the central document will be a design-
specification document created by professional
software designers. The software design spec
will explicitly describe what the program is
supposed to accomplish, for whom, and how.
The most important parts of the spec, however,
will be the ones that exhaustively describe ex-
actly what the program does, and how the user
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 249
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Copyrighted material
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Copyrighted material
PC TECH
commands it. Not only will the visual aspect of
the interface be described, the actual interac-
tion will be shown. If the user is to select a par-
ticular object, the spec will describe exactly how
that object will look on-screen and exactly how
it will behave when the user clicks on it and
drags it. The spec will describe how the pro-
gram’s features, the user’s actions, and the con-
sequences of those actions will be communi-
cated to the user.
The biggest difference, however, wouldn't
be in what is in the document but in the pro-
cess used to create it. Software has historical-
ly been built only from exhaustive and de-
tailed lists of required features; interfaces
have reflected this by being characteristically
exhaustive and detailed. The interface mir-
rors how the program is built. I call this type
of design the “implementation model.” Un-
fortunately, implementation-model programs
force users to understand how the program
was implemented in order to use it. Instead
of allowing users to specify their goals, the
program demands that the user tell the soft-
ware how to achieve them.
Unlike the implementation model, the in-
depth software -design process ignores details
of implementation until the final stages of the
process. Instead, it spends much of its time fo-
cusing on who the users are and what their
goals are. The process then concentrates on
delivering the users’ goals in the most direct
manner possible.
Goal-directed designs are easy to spot, be-
cause they rarely have more than two screens or
views. After all, users rarely want to achieve
more than two goals with a given software prod-
uct. Dozens or even hundreds of tasks may be
involved in achieving those goals, but if the in-
terface is shaped by the tasks rather than the
goals, the design immediately becomes imple-
mentation model; It becomes feature-centric.
Users would be perfectly happy if all of those
tasks went away, and the program just allowed
the direct achievement of goals. The modem
software-design process makes clear which
parts of the interface are tasks and which are
goals, allowing the designer to push tasks into
the background and to express the interface in
terms of the users’ goals.
The explosion of the Web illustrates how
effective goal-directed design can be. From a
features point of view, the Web is weak com-
pared with a spreadsheet or a corporate in-
voice program. But compare those programs'
popularity with the Web’s. The Web may be
weak, but it allows users to achieve the goals
of finding information and communicating
with others without having to understand how
the software works or having to learn obscure
commands and features.
As Web software and desktop software
merge, the need for modern, goal-directed
software design will increase dramatically, and
users won’t be the only beneficiaries. Pro-
254 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Programmers ’ Perspectives
grammers will be happier, because they can
concentrate on mastering the awesome com-
plexity and sophistication of modern com-
puter systems, and software designers will
smile as they concentrate on mastering the
awesome self-centeredness and irrationality
of modern users. Working as a team, pro-
grammers and designers will make users hap-
pier and more productive by becoming hap-
pier and more productive themselves.
Alan Cooper is best known as the father of
Visual Basic and the author of About Face;
The Essentials of User Interface Design (IDG
Books, 1995). Alan developed goal-directed
design, which Cooper Software, his design
consulting company, uses exclusively. You can
contact him via e-mail at aIan@cooper.com or
through the Web at www.cooper.com.
James Gosling
I magine a world where all programmers use
a common set of tools to create applica-
tions. The programmers write all sorts of
applications, from those that run a car’s fuel
injection to those that automatically shut off
an iron. The applications can execute virtually
any task, and are as varied as we can imagine.
They can run on any device with a CPU and
can be written from a programmer’s platform
of choice. But these applications share a com-
mon element; the building blocks upon which
they are founded.
In this world, knowledge would be modu-
lar. A programmer who writes applications to
conduct commerce over the Internet could
“Imagine a world where
every electronic device on
the pianetcan
communicate
with every
other one,
where the technologies we
use are totally integrated.”
also write the code that makes a watch able
to display all of the world’s time zones.
Write once, run anywhere goes beyond the
modularity of Java and its ability to run on any
platform. It translates into a world where pro-
grammers learn once, write anywhere. It
brings continuity to programming in a way
that was previously nonexistent. Write once,
run anywhere certainly does not eliminate
specialization, but it does make knowledge cu-
mulative. Programmers could build on what
they know instead of having to retrain with
every iteration of the latest technology.
Such a concept also means that all the tech-
nology in our lives can be interconnected.
Every electronic device on the planet can com-
municate with every other one. Imagine a
world where the technologies we use are to-
tally integrated, where your coffee machine
brews a cup of coffee between meetings by
communicating with your calendar so that you
can drink it fi*esh and piping hot, right on time.
Java will be the great equalizer of plat-
forms. It will be the bridge connecting Win-
tel, Mac. and Unix. Users and programmers
alike will have the luxury of using their plat-
form of choice — a luxury indeed in todayls
world, when standardization seems to be the
mandate.
As I look to the future, I see a world of to-
tal integration. The very nature of program-
ming will change. The network computer and
smart cards are merely harbingers of the things
to come.
James Gosling is vice president and a Sun
Fellow of Sun Microsystems, and the lead en-
gineer and key architect behind Sun ’s new Java
programming language. James has been in-
volved in distributed computing since his ar-
rival at Sun in 1984. Before joining Sun, he
built a multiprocessor version of Unix as well
as the original Unix Emacs.
John Lam
T he one constant in the software industry
is the search for the “killer tool" that will
dramatically improve productivity and
lift the huddled programming masses into the
heavens. Yet we have all seen many a killer tool
come and go. The ones that remain are those
that can deliver real benefits to both develop-
ers and their customers.
The latest killer tool in our industry is Java.
If you believe the hype, Java will sweep aside
our cross-platform programming problems
and allow us to run a single executable file on
all of the computers in the known universe.
But don’t believe the hype; history can be a
great teacher.
The dream of cross-platform programming
is not new. The C programming language
rapidly became the standard language for
computers everywhere. Yet it failed to reach
the mainstream as a cross-platform program-
ming language. Why?
With the advent of graphical user inter-
faces, the majority of mc^em programs spend
most of their time talking to their computer’s
operating system. This minimizes the benefit
of a cross-platform language, because the real
complexity of a program lies within its inter-
actions with the operating system.
Can Java solve this problem? Whereas C
was reasonably portable at the source-code
Copyrighted material
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PC TECH
Programmers* Perspectives
level, Java is designed to be portable at the
executable-file level. Java uses native class li-
braries for each target operating system so that
the same executable file can inherit the look
and feel of different operating systems. Sounds
good. But what's wrong with this approach?
Java attempts to homogenize all GUIs.
Users, however, are demanding much more
these days. A Windows 95 user has come to
expect a certain look and feel from applica-
tions. A warmed-over Mac application that
uses Windows 95 user interface widgets simply
does not feel like a native Windows 95 appli-
cation. Therefore, the application fails to de-
liver value to the customer.
Companies must remain focused on deliv-
ering value to their customers. Cross-platform
“We’ve all seen many a
‘killer tool’ come and go.
The ones that
remain are
those that can
deliver real
benefits to both developers
and their customers.”
programming promises to minimize R & D ex-
penditures, but at the risk of potentially alien-
ating their customers. Remember what hap-
pened to Multiplan. Microsoft’s cross-platform
spreadsheet of the early 1980s? It was elimi-
nated by a blazingly fast spreadsheet that was
specifically optimized for the IBM PC environ-
ment — Lotus 1-2-3.
Don't misunderstand me here. Java is a
great programming language. It was designed
with a clean slate, and it is far better suited for
event-driven programming than languages
like C++. But let’s give up on the cross-
platform Holy Grail. Your users deserve more
than that.
John Lam is president of Naleco Research
(www.naleco.com), developers of RADFind %,
a high-speed file-finder utility for Windows 95.
John has been involved in so^are development
since the good old days, when he was writing ap-
plications using a line-oriented mini-assembler
for the 6502. His primary interests are in the de-
sign and implementation of COM-based solu-
tions to difficult sysiems programming prob-
lems. John, who holds a doctorate in organic
chemistry from the University of Toronto,
speaks annually at the Borland Developers'
Conference and actively participates in the local
softw are development community in Toronto.
Gordon Letwin
m
fad is born
that will
solve the
‘software crisis’ and, most
likely, bring world peace.”
S oftware development for personal com-
puters began when RAM capacities
reached the awesome 4K mark. A few
rich folks had 8K. Back then, the hallmark
of software development was “watchmak-
ing craftsmanship” — making your code as
dense and efficient as possible. We knew
what to write: versions of big machine soft-
ware, such as compilers and editors. The chal-
lenge was to write them
smaller than ever before.
As hardware capacity
increased, the emphasis
changed from being able
to do it at all to doing it
with panache. Engineers
were happy with a sim-
ple outline for a screen
window, but the gen-
eral public wanted coo!
incised-looking boxes,
with proportional fonts
and color.
At roughly the same
time, software design
moved into unknown
territory, doing things
that had never been
done on the big iron: image editing, integrated
development environments, groupware, multi-
media, and so forth. The Internet, though not
new, is being used in ways that are. The empha-
sis for software engineering has moved from
craftsmanship to imagination.
The amazing number of applications for and
uses of PCs has had a major impact on the de-
velopment of system software— operating sys-
tems, GUIs, and so on. Today, it requires bil-
lions of dollars to engineer and manufacture
a state-of-the-art CPU; likewise, it requires a
massive investment to produce a state-of-the-
art operating environment that is compatible
with the PC standard. At one time a team of a
dozen could produce a version of DOS, and an-
other team of a dozen could produce a com-
piler. Today, it may take 50 people to produce a
compiler and 500 to produce a new OS. The
majority of that effort goes into preserving
compatibility with the standard — a standard
with no written definition. TTie .software busi-
ness is no more restricted to entry than the chip
business is; there's always room for new ideas.
But the OS part of the business is no longer
a game for start-ups.
As technical systems emerge, improvements
increase the complexity of the system. As the
systems mature, development effort is diverted
from “more” to “easier.” Today's automobile is
much easier to operate than a Model-T — you
turn the key and press on the gas. The driver
knows nothing of starters, chokes, or engine
mix, or even of clutches and transmissions.
“Ppogrammeps are not
immune to fads; every few
years, a new
Computers will similarly reach a peak in user
complexity, and they're probably near to that
now. The earliest movements toward artificial-
intelligence systems are already evident: auto-
matic-hinting systems, user agents, help wiz-
ards. Internet search engines, and the like.
Computer whizzes will continue to see the inner
workings of their machines, just as race car driv-
ers do. But for the general public, a computer
will become more of an assistant than a simple
tool, approaching the goal of a machine that
figures out what you want and does it for you.
Predicting the far fu-
ture of software develop-
ment is easy: you just give
the standard “all things to
all people” speech. Pre-
dicting the immediate fu-
ture is also easy: you just
talk about what you’re
working on now. It’s pre-
dicting the intermediate
future that is hard. But
I can offer three sure-
fire intermediate future
predictions:
• More failed attempts at
creating an “all things for
all people” environment.
Typical of these projects
is the pursuit of the “uni-
versal operating system” that runs applications
written for several different platforms. These
projects kx)k good on paper but never succeed.
• More “fairy dust” solutions. Programmers are
not immune to fads; every few years, a new fad
is bom that will solve— or so it is proclaimed —
the “software crisis” and, most likely, bring
world peace. Object-oriented programming
was the previous fad; Java, the current one.
Both of these are useful tools but neither will
live up to a fraction of their hype.
• Lots of surprises. We are as of now not even
halfway through the computer revolution.
The rale of hardware improvement may slow
somewhat, but the rale of impact on people’s
daily lives will accelerate. As the saying has it,
“You ain’t seen nothin' yet!”
Gordon Letwin joined Microsoft in 1978,
when the company consisted of 12 people.
He became the lead OS architect, developing
Xenix and then serving as the chief architect
of OS/2. Version 1.0. Gordon is currently on
leave from Microsoft and is working on home-
automation issues.
Charles Petzold
I n 1985. a visit from Microsoft bigwig Steve
Ballmer to the offices of PC Magazine
could mean only one thing: Another pre-
release version of Windows was ready for
our perusal. Those of us at the magazine who
were interested in Windows (not many, ac-
tually) would gather in the office of Bill
Machronc or John Dickinson to check it out.
-:al
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAC.AZINE 261
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CIRCLE 213 ON READER SERVICE CARO c-d malerial
PC TECH
Programmers* Perspectives
They were two of the few people at the maga-
zine who had EGA boards on their machines
and could therefore run Windows in color.
Those prerelease versions of Windows were
never quite stable enough for practical use.
Crashes were frequent and hard. We’d play
with each one for a while until we got bored,
and then wait for the next visit h'om Ballmer.
This continued until shortly before the official
release of Windows 1.0, in November 1985.
Of course, Windows wasn’t a success right
away. By the time of its release, Windows even
had some competition: PC Magazine's Febru-
“WeYe probably safe
in assuming that the
Windows
of the future
won’t veer
too far
from its origins. ... The
wimp interface lives.”
ary 25, 1 986, cover story proclaimed “Window
Wars!” as Windows faced off against Quarter-
deck's DESQview, Digital Research’s GEM
Desktop, and IBMis Top Vie w. And no one was
placing bets on which windowing environment
would eventually reign supreme.
Bill Gates had predicted that Windows
would be a “slow bum.” That proved to be
truer than he probably would have preferred.
Although many software companies had ini-
tially committed themselves to writing Win-
dows applications, most of them (Microsoft
included) weren't in any great rush actually to
develop or release anything. Those of us at PC
Magazine who understood the role of Win-
dows as a platform for the next generation of
PC applications had high hopes, but early Wm-
dows applications (with the exception of those
from Microgra^) were simply awful.
That% why you won’t find many reviews of
Windows applications while perusing old is-
sues of the magazine. Nor will you see much
about Windows in the magazine’s productiv-
ity section. In those early days, no one consid-
ered Windows to be a tool for power users;
Windows was assumed to be an environment
for naive users who lacked the testosterone
necessary for hard-core computing — that is.
the same type of people who used Macs.
The great leap forward for Windows came in
1990. In May, Microsoft introduced Windows
3.0, widely perceived as the first version of Wm-
dows that was ready for prime time. Techni-
266 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
cally, the major difference between Windows
3.0 and its earlier versions was that Windows 3.0
exploited the prolected-mode operation of the
Intel 286 microprocessor, thus giving the envi-
ronment access to 16MB of memory. But addi-
tional factors were at work to make Windows
3.0 a success, and a critical mass had finally been
reached: Windows was finally robust enough,
hardware finally fast enough, and applications
finally plentiful enough for Windows to be a
full-time environment for most users.
May 1990, also saw the launch of William S.
Hall’s Windows column, PC Magazine's first
effort to cover specifically Windows issues for
power users. In 1990, two PC Magazine con-
tributing editors who had had long experience
with Windows programming (Ray Duncan
and myself) would probably have been writ-
ing about Windows had it not been for the dis-
traction of OS/2, the operating system created
by IBM and Microsoft that was supposed to
replace DOS and Windows, as well as elimi-
nate poverty and war. No, not even Petzold
and Duncan could save OS/2 from the market-
ing geniuses at IBM.
My Environments column debuted in Sep-
teml^r 1987 and. until February 1995, ex-
plored programming issues in OS/2, then Win-
dows, then OS/2 again, and finally Windows
again. They say you can recognize pioneers by
the arrows in their backs. I have a few myself,
mostly dating from the fall of 1991. when I em-
barked on a series of columns about what I felt
(and still feel) to be one of the most important
enhancements to Windows ever: multimedia.
At the time, CD-ROM drives were a luxury
item, sound boards were for games, and multi-
media extensions to Windows 3.0 were soft-
ware add-ons. The Environments column cov-
ered the new sound and music support in
Windows; reader ridicule followed. Of course,
multimedia extensions were later incorporated
into Windows 3.1 (released April 1992), and
today, hardware multimedia support is built
into most desktop PCs. Few people today care
to remember how “unnecessary” such extrav-
agances were considered just a few years ago.
Another important step for Windows was
the move to a 32-bit architecture. Although the
first 386-based PCs had been available since
1986, operating systems were slow to use the
32-bit processing available with these micro-
processors. Industrial-strength 32-bit Windows
(known as Windows NT) came out in 1993,
and the more consumer-oriented 32-bit Win-
dows 95 arrived two years later, leaving 16-bit
programming forever behind.
Perhaps what is most impressive about
Windows is how malleable it is— (picking up a
decade’s worth of features and running on
everything from husky RISC-based worksta-
tions to tiny little palmtops. Throughout this
process, Windows has retained an identity eas-
ily recognizable by both user and programmer.
For this reason, we're probably safe in
assuming that the Windows of the future won't
veer too far from its origins. Handwriting and
voice recognition seem to be shelved for the
time being, and no one has come up with any-
thing better than Windows, icons, mice, and
pull-downs. The wimp interface lives.
Charles Petzold has been a contributing edi-
tor of PC Maggcdne since 1985. Heistheauthor
of Programming Windows (Microsoft Press,
1996) and OS/2 Presentation Manager Pro-
gramming (Ziff-Davis Press; out of print). He
is currently working on a book for Microsoft
Press on digital image processing for Windows.
Matt Pietrek
C ommenting in any detail on the future of
programming is a task that^ open to inter-
pretation. Although I don’t make a habit
of predicting the future, when Idol start by ex-
amining past trends. One that’s been evident
since the beginning of programming is that lay-
ers are continually being added to the bedrock
(or quicksand!) underneath. I don’t see any-
thing happening soon that bucks this trend.
Consider a Web page designer who's using
ActiveX controls written in Microsoft Visual
Basic. Those ActiveX controls may use a data-
base as well as controls written in C++. The pro-
grammer writing the C++ controls uses a com-
piler written by a team of tools programmers.
The C++- control author also m^es calls to the
operating system. The authors of the operating
system rely on device drivers that communicate
with the machined hardware, which are written
by yet another type of programmer.
My point is that what we call “program-
ming” can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
The future of programming will depend on the
“Adding complexity to a
programmer’s life is the
emergence
of cross-
platform
programming
in conjunction with
interpreted languages.”
type of programming you’re doing. It’s a safe
bet that the changes in store for an HTML pro-
grammer will be far different than those for
a compiler writer. Similarly, the magnitude of
the changes should be roughly equal to how
high in the software layer your particular kind
of coding resides. Newer layers will undergo
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.-'ial
PC TECH
more change and improvement than older,
more established layers.
Adding complexity to a programmer's life
is the emergence of cross-platform program-
ming in conjunction with interpreted lan-
guages, such as HTML, Java, and Visual Basic.
In the past, interpreted languages were often
shunned because they weren't fast enough.
Now, however, processing power is cheap and
fast. Most interpreted programs will probably
run “fast enou^” on any desired target plat-
form. I attribute much of the rise of the Web
to hardware and languages that perform rea-
sonably well in an interpreted environment.
While writing a program once and having
it run on many platforms sounds appeal-
ing, problems have and will continue to arise.
For starters, an interpreted language often
makes it difficult to take full advantage of a
particular hardware platform's capabilities.
Likewise, just because a particular language
claims to work the same across platforms
doesn't mean it will. Little kinks and differ-
ences always creep in. When you combine
all the layers in today’s software with the de-
mand that code run across many platforms,
the result is an increasingly difficult life for
the typical programmer. Sure, you might be
able to construct a database query in one line
of code, but how do you track down the prob-
lem when the query fails? In this environ-
ment, tools and techniques for monitoring
and finding problems in the interactions be-
tween layers become more essential. And this
means that programmers who can design,
code, and debug across multiple layers in a
system will be in high demand. Programmers
who stick only to a particular niche may soon
find themselves obsolete.
Matt Pietrek writes the Under the Hood col-
umn in the Microsoft Systems Journal and has
written several books about operating system
internals. He is also a senior architect of the
BoundsChecker series of products for Nu-
Mega Technologies, of Nashua, New Hamp-
shire. In addition, Matt gives Win32 seminars
for David Solomon Expert Seminars.
Jeff Prosise
I f there's one thing that% clear about the fu-
ture of Windows programming, it% that the
Component Object Model (COM) will play
a huge role in it. COM is Microsoft's answer to
the problem of binary-object portability, and
it^ the basis for ActiveX controls, applications
that display documents within Internet Ex-
plorer 3.0, and other OLE wizardry.
COM is also becoming an integral part of
the operating system itself. Some of the key
features of Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0,
for example, are exposed not through API
functions but through COM interfaces.
The bad news, of course, is that writing COM
code is more tedious and error-prone than writ-
272 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Programmers ’ Perspectives
ing to the Windows API. Writing an OLE docu-
ment server in C++ with a good class library to
help out is no picnic, but it is possible; writing
the same application in C is a little like building
your own 767. As COM proliferates, even the
more traditional programmers among us will
be compelled to use class libraries, such as the
Microsoft Foundation Gasses (MFC) or the
ActiveX Template Library (ATL). Soon, the
programmer who writes to the Windows API
“As COM proliferates,
even the more traditional
programmers
among us
compelled
to use class libraries,
such as MFC or ATL.”
will be looked upon the way assembly lan-
guage programmers are today. Those who fail to
accept the new world order risk obsolescence.
Prosise specializes in Windows pro-
gramming. His latest book. Programming Win-
dows 95 with MFC. is published by Microsoft
Press. A longtime programmer who cut his teeth
on Windows writing 16-bU apps using C and the
SDK, Jeff today codes almost exclusively for the
Win32 platform using C++ and MFC. In addi-
tion to writing coltimns for PC Magazine and
the Microsoft Systems Jouma\, Jeff frequently
speaks at industry programming conferences.
Neil J. Rubenking
P rogramming is getting easier all the time.
Myriad products are available that let
you create programs without program-
ming. manage databases without knowing a
field from a record, and distribute applica-
tions over the Internet without writing a line
of code. Or so we’re told. In truth, the imagi-
nary utopia in which every user is an instant
programmer hasn’t arrived, although it may
be closer than we think.
Programming tools have improved im-
mensely every year, but the programmer's job
hasn't gotten any easier. Yes. integrated de-
velopment environments and object-oriented
programming make it easier to re-use code, set
up user interfaces, and create standard appli-
cations from predefined components. But the
underlying operating systems have exploded in
complexity, to the point that it^ nearly impossi-
ble for a programmer to know all of the services
available in an OS, much less all of the API func-
tions. User expectations have risen as well, so
programmers need to work just as hard as ever.
But we are seeing a certain stratification of
programmers — a sort of modem caste system.
At present, the two major groups are those
who create components and those who use
components, with a third, much smaller group
of Brahmins who write the underlying operat-
ing systems. This is as it should be — building a
component that turns any program into an in-
stant Web site is one type of work, while inte-
grating that component into a particular appli-
cation is something completely di^erent. The
problem is, there^ another artificial distinction
that obscures this logical caste system: Pro-
grammers are divided according to the plat-
form they work under and the programming
language they use. I write in Delphi for 32-bit
Windows; he writes in COBOL for Unix; she
writes in C++ for OS/2. To date, every dream of
widely used and truly interchangeable software
components has been derailed by this division.
There's hope, though, in cross-platform
programming languages like Java and cross-
platform object standards tike ActiveX.
Whether through one common standard or
multiple compatible standards, programmers
will eventually be able to use components
without regard for platform or programming
language. And after a few years of refine-
ment, programming by assembling compo-
nents may well be within the reach of every
“In truth, the imaginary
utopia in which every
than we think.”
computer user. Today's programmers needn't
worry about job security, though. We’ll be
very, very busy writing those components.
NeilJ, Rubenking is the contributing techni-
cal editor of ?C Magazine. His User-to-User
column initiates readers into the mysteries of
DOS and Windows, and his frequent contribu-
tions to the Utilities column both provide useftd
programs and teach programming concepts.
Neil has written seven books on DOS, Windows,
and programming, including Delphi Program-
ming for Dummies and Delphi lYogramming
Problem Solver, both from IDG Books.
Copyrighted material
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STANDARD 6 WESTERN IS] Pu Ltd. (Sinuporfl
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© 1996 He8x Software Co. AS rights res&ved.
This is the last time
our name will be a mystery.
Introducing CyberVision. An entirely new family of innovative monitors created to deliver incredible
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Call your local distributors for more information about our products:
CGA Computers: 1-888-205-5902 EMPaC International: 1-800-938-8878 Zynk Industrial: 1-510-471-2288
NuTrend Computer: 1-888-4UCOMPUE(482-6678)
EMPaC Microsystems: 1-630-627-0800 Pony Computers: 1-800-945-7669
Copyrighted material
1-800-863-3282
^KYE I
INTERNATIONAL CORP.
Knowledge * Yield • Excellence
1.800.456-7593 • http://www.genius-kye.com
Software Broderbund
Fix Studio
Designer is bundled FtEEl wllb odded
Kid Fix Studio mode by
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■■ ^holg»l 1-800-966-6546
ages
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^ Kids Designer educates and entertains kids
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^ Kids Designer, the alternative input
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^ Kids Designer Is the most affordable i
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^ Kids Designer ease of use hardware
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pod-works like a pen and is housed in a
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smooth working design surface plus a buill-
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its Kids Designer eosily installs directly in to o
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Kids Designer supports Windows 3.1 x &
Windows 95 Flug and ploy function.
2605 EostCedor St., Ontotio,CA 91761-8511 MEl: 909-923-3510 • FAX: 909-923-5494
©1996 KYE Intetnolionol Cotp. All products and btond nonres mentioned ore registered trademarks of their respective companies.
CtHCLE 018 ON READER SERVICE CARD OR GOTOVVWW.PCMAG.COM/PcoductLlnk
Copyrighted r
See what you've been missing
on the Internet.
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You’ve got Internet e-mail, Internet char
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Audio Vision"" 2.0 is the amazing software that lets you communicate
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With AudioVision, you can send VMail"', video e-mail that any
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SmitiiMickodp
SOFTWARE LiM—\
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Set us OH the VTeh HI
Copyrighted material
OlOVTRr.
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Micro -Star V International
Copyrighted material
No other motherboard manufacturers come close to
the technology of Micro-Star International's (MSI) innovation
At MSI, we released the first dual Pentium ® Pro
motherbard in the early of 1996. In 1997, we completed
the latest generation of motherboards with Intel Chipsets.
It's lifbre than purely a matter of technology, it
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So, you thought you've seen everything.
Think again! Think MSI's Motherboard,
Copy^nicfd mater^
MS-6103
Single/Dual Pentium* Pro NA1 ATX M/B
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Support Intel* ~ 200 Mhz
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SIMM X 4 for FP & EDO (ECC) DRAM. Max. 512 MB
AWARD or AMI PnP/DMI/Flash Bios
MS-5149
Intel* 430VXTR10 M/B
• Inter 430VX Chipsets
Multi CPU Choice:
Support Intel* P54CyP55C MMX' /AMD*/Cyrix*
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Dual USB 1 .0 Port Cormectors
MS-5143
Intel* 430VXTR9ATXM/B
• Inter 430VX Chipsets
• Mult) CPU Choice:
Support Intel* P54C/P55C MMX' /AMO* /Cyrix*
• Flexible Memory Configuration:
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• AWARD or AMI PnP/DMI/Flash Bios
- Dual USB 1.0 Port Connectors
MS-6107
Dual Pentium" Pro NA4 ATX M/B
Inter 440FX Chipsets
Support Intel* 150 - 200 Mhz
Dual Pentium* Pro Processor
SIMM X 6 for FP & EDO (ECC) DRAM, Max, 512MB
AWARD or AMI PnP/DMI/Flash Bios
MS-5148
Intel* 430TXTX2 ATX M/B
• Inter 430TX Chipsets
- Multi CPU Choice:
Support Intel* P54C/P55C MMX7AMD*/ Cyrix*
• Flexible Memory Configuration:
SIMM X 4 & DIMM x 2 for EDO/S.DRAM
Max. 256MB
• AWARD PnP /DMI/ Flash Bios
- Dual USB 1.0 Port Connectors
•Support Ultra DMA-33MB IDE
• PC97/ACPI Spec. Compliance
For more information, contact our worldwide location near you.
Or visit us at http:// www.msi.com.tw
HEADQUARTER
MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.. LTD.
7P. No. 4. Lane 497, Chung Cheng Road.
Hsln-Tien City. Taipei Haien, Taiwan. R.O.C.
Tel: 886-2-216-2292 Fax: S86-2-21&-5552
U.S.A.
ACHME Computer Inc.
Tel: 1-510-623-8818
Fax: 1-510-623-6585
France
MSI Computer SARL
Tel: 33-1-6037-0011
Fax:33-1-6037-0066
Germany
MSI Computer GMBH
Tel: 49-6074-42057
Fax: 49-6074-29143
Japan
Micro-Star Corp.
Tel: 81-3-3251-0494
Fax: 81-3-3251-0601
Copyrighted materia!
T16NFK \ \ \
• Klamathy33/266M^CPU moduli
Pentium Vro on TMC^ KP6
CPU module \
• SIMMx6. upUo 768MB, FPWEDO
• W]n95>poweV>off, Modem>rim-on
• ATX \ \
Klamath
http://wvvw.mycomp-tmc.com
• Dual Pentium* Pro 200MHz
• Intel* 62440FX
• SIMMxS. up to 1GB
FPM/EDO. ECC
• Win95-power-off
• ATX
XLTMC
• Pentium 200MHz. P55C MMXT
Cyrix* 6x86, AMD’ K5
• Intel’ 82430TX
• Up to 256MB. FPM/EOO/SORAM
• 256/512KBL2 cache
• Ultra DMA/33. ACPI, USB/IrDA
headers
• Win95-power-off. Modem-nng-on
• ATX
• Pentium' 200MHz. P55C MMXT
Cyrix- 6x86. AMD-K5
• Intel' 82430VX
• Up to 128MB. FPM/EDO/SDRAM
• 256/512KBL2 cache
• ESS1868 3D sound, PnP(Option)
• USB/IrDA headers
• ATX
• Pentium* Pro200MHz
• Intel* 82440FX
• Upto512MB. FPM/EDO, ECC
• USB/lrOA headers
• Baby AT
Cf ^ ^ IB
'*•_**' rty«30»H-» COMPUTE
fflCeBIl
LLi H A N N 0
97
V ( K
1 Hall 12 1
Taiwan Mycomp Co., Ltd.
E-ma*i. mycompsm@ms7 hinet.nei
1F. 16. Lane SO. Nan Kang Rd . Sec.3
Teipet. Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: (8S6) 2-7820201
Fax: (886)2-7827466
T.M.C.
631 S. Milpitas Blvd
Milpitas. CA 95035 U SA
Phone; (1)408-2620888
Fax: (1)408-2621082
TMC Technology Electronics
GmbH
Heerdter Landstrafte 189-193
40549 Dtiss^od. Germany
Phone 49-(0) 211-956090
Fax. 49-(0) 211-501520
TMC Technology U.K. Co.. Ltd. Mynix Technology Inc.
Unit 5 Martinfieid Business Centre 9720 Trans-Canadienne
Martinfield. Welwyn Garden City Saint Laurent. Quebec
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Phone: (44) 1707-390766 Phone: (1) 514-3352456
Fax: (44) 1707-390761 Fax: (1) 514-3357789
Can you imagine a Pentium* processor-based system that doesn't need jumpers to select CPU parameters?
Upgrading your Pentium* processor-based system by yourself was once an unattainable dream.
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fflCeBIT'97
LiJ HANNOVER
13.-19. 03. 1997
HALL12/A01
Cf^yrighted material
Actions boost your
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The Navigator saves
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Adjustment Layers
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Free Transform allows
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Digital watermarking
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Adobe, Adobe PiuMothop ind ihc UfUne.
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All oiber ourb are the propenr of
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offer code 26100 or visit us at www.adobe.com.
Adobe
If you can dream it, you can do it.®
CIRCLE 020 ON READER SERVICE CARO
Copyrighted material
Just Smart is Not Enough ! dOHB 1
Take action and Get v®**
Bodyguard ' — — — '
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^Support 120MB ATARI F.D.D.
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■fj
oSwitching Mode Voltage Regelotor. ~
oAuto System Resource Allocotkm for
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oRemote Modem Ring On.
to sense CPU temp.
• When CPU overheats. A.C.O.RS.
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- If your CPU FAN stops spinning or your
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rf]CeBIT 97
HANNOVER
Hall/Floor/Stand No.
012 F21
cProgramabie CPU Speed In Stand By Mode.
' II
cStop Fan At System Suspend 1 ,
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Auto Power Off.
bSV ft 3.3V DRAl|(JM^ingJ^sstbl^|i.
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ODMI.
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GIGA-BYTES FULL RANGED MMX MAINBOARDS ENSURE YOUR PC ALWAYS A WINNER
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SF. No.9, Alley 6. Lane 45. Peo Shin Road.
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ASUS TX97 Smart Mainboards Series . . .
i
With the Most Advanced Features
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CPU & System Overheat Alert
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EMmommmm
■32!KESHS!
Auto Fan OfT at Suspend Slate
Desktop Management Software
Rcpotli CPU oad tberaul statu and wiTM «bea tcBpcratnra
an oat of set roneca
Warns wbcD lyWeni hard ditm and m ea wry Brw spocet an has than
the deAaed safe levels
Pnveats s3'stcB BIOS ftoa beliig in fected bj vtnaea.
Aoto-On from Soft-Off mode when ■‘f****^ by an caO to
Wants whea tbs system cover b opened by an am mtbort aed oscr
Protect! the CTO by liewt^ down the CPU darbig s y stem overhe a t
Redocee system pdee and energy conoBmpdon when the system ts In
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Zeigt den (ic^undhcit^/u^tand de^ Rechners dun*h OMi und
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ntei
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[^CeBir97
A N N 0 V E R
13 .- 19 . 03 . 1997
Hall; 1 2 Booth No. F24
V ACPI Ready for PC ’97
Supports “Advanced Configuration Power Interface” that is PC '97 ready
V USB Ports Supported
Connectivities for Plug and Play peripherals
V Switching Regulator
Stabilizes voltage regulators and reduce system temperature
V 512KB PB Cache Std.
Full level two cache size for increased data buffering.
V Soft-off for PC ’97
System ^ut-down by OS (Wm9S). Available on ASUS baby AT
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CyberMax
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Surfing from Main Street to Wall Street is simple if you
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SOI December 1996
Copyrighted material
* Intel 200MHz Pentium* Pro Processor
* 32MB EDO RAM w/2S6K Pipeline Burst Cache
* STB Velocity 3D Video Cord w/8MB VRAM
« 4.0GB Hard Drive, 1.44MB 3.5* Floppy Drive
* 12i CD-ROM, Ensoniq Wovetoble Sound Card
* 33.6Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Mail & Speakerphone
* 17* Princeton Grophics EO .28 dp (16.1*VA) Monitor
* Altec Lansing ACS400 Speakers & ACS250 Subwoofer
* 104-Key Keyboard, Microphone & MS PS/2 Mouse
* Microsoft Windows 95 w/MS Plus, CyberSpoce Pock
* Fomily/Office Multimedia CD Bundle (Preinstolled)
* ATX Tower Case w/ 2 fans
* Limited 3-Yeor Worronty w/ In-Home Service
Upgrode to NT Add $99
Business Lease *92
* Intel 200MHz Pentium* Processor w/MMX'“ Technology
* 32MB EDO RAM w/512K Pipeline Burst Cache
* STB Velocity 3D Video Cord w/4MB VRAM
* 4.06B Herd Drive, 1.44MB 33' Floppy Drive
* 12x CD-ROM, Ensoniq Wovetoble Sound Cord
* 33.6Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Moil & Speakerphone
* 17' Princeton Graphics Nl (16.1'VA) Monitor
* Altec Lansing ACS90 Speakers & ACS250 Subwoofer
* 104-Key Keyboard, Microphone & MS PS/2 Mouse
* Microsoft Windows 95 w/MS Plus, CyberSpoce Pock
* Family/Office Multimedio CD Bundle (Preinstolled)
* Vertical Tower Cose w/ 2 fons
* Limited 3-Yeor Warranty w/ In-Home Service
Business Leose *87
* Intel 166MHz Pentium* Processor w/MMX'* Technology
* 32MB EDO RAM w/S12K Pipeline Burst Cache
* STB Velocity 3D Video Cord w/4MB VRAM
* 3.2GB Hard Drive, 1.44MB 3.5* Floppy Drive
* 12x CD-ROM, Ensoniq Wovetoble Sound Cord
* 33.6Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Mail & Speokerphone
* 17* Princeton Graphics Nl (16.1'VA) Monitor
* Altec Lansing ACS45 Speakers
* 104-Key Keyboord, Microphone & MS PS/2 Mouse
* Microsoft Windows 95 w/MS Plus, CyberSpoce Pock
* Family/Office Multimedia CD Bundle (Preinstolled)
* Vertical Tower Cose w/ 2 fans
* Limited 3-Yeor Worronty w/ In-Home Service
Business Lease *77
* Cyrix 6x86'“ P200 + Processor
* 32MB EDO RAM w/256K Pipeline Burst Cache
* STB Velocity 3D Video Cord w/8MB VRAM
* 4.0G6 Hord Drive. 1.44MB 3.5' Floppy Drive
* 12x CD-ROM, Ensoniq Wovetoble Sound Card
* 33.6Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Mail & Speokerphone
* 17' Princeton Graphics E075 Nl {16.1'VA) Monitor
* Altec Loosing ACS90 Speokers & ACS250 Subwoofer
* 104-Key Keyboord, Microphone & MS PS/2 Mouse
* Microsoft Windows 95 w/MS Plus, CyberSpoce Pack
* Fomily/OHice Multimedia CD Bundle (Preinstalled)
* Verticol Tower Cose w/ 2 fons
* Limited 3-Year Worronty w/ In-Home Service
Business Leose *80
* Cyrix 6x86'“ P200-f Processor
* 32MB EDO RAM w/256K Pipeline Burst Coche
* STB Velocity 3D Video Cord w/4MB VRAM
* 3.2GB Hord Drive, 1.44MB 3.5' Floppy Drive
* 12x CD-ROM, Ensoniq Wovetoble Sound Cord
* 33.6Kbps Fax/Modem w/Voice Moil & Speakerphone
* 17* Princeton Graphics Nl (16.1'VA) Monitor
* Altec Loosing ACS90 Speakers & ACS250 Subwoofer
* 104-Key Keyboard, Microphone & MS PS/2 Mouse
* Microsoft Windows 95 w/MS Plus, CyberSpoce Pock
* Family/OHice Multimedia CD Bundle (Preinstalled)
* Vertical Tower Cose w/ 2 fons
* Limited 3-Yeor Worronty w/ In-Home Service
Business Leose *75
See additional configuration.s at \v\nv.rybmax.fom
* Cyrix 6xB6'“ P200 + Processor
* 32MB EDO RAM w/256K Pipeline Burst Cache
* Diomond Steolth 3D 2000 Video Cord w/4MB
* 2.5GB Hord Drive, 1.44MB 3.5' Floppy Drive
* 12x CD-ROM, Ensoniq Wovetoble Sound Card
* 33.6Kbps Fox/Modem w/Voice Moil & Speakerphone
* 17' Princeton Graphics Nl (16.1'VA) Monitor
* Altec Lansing ACS45 Speakers
* 104-Key Keyboard, Microphone & MS PS/2 Mouse
* Microsoft Windows 95 w/MS Plus, CyberSpoce Pock
* Fomily/Office Multimedia CD Bundle (Preinstalled)
* Verticol Tower Cose w/ 2 fans
* Limited 3-Yeor Worronty w/ In-Home Service
Business Lease *70
The Multimedia CD Bundle
Q>rel WordPerfect Suite 7: WordPerfect 7, Quaitro Pro 7, Presentations 7, Sidekick 95, Envoy 7 CorelFLOW 3, Netscape by AT&T
WorldNet, Dashboard 95. Corel Screen Saver, J50 fonts and tO.OOO clip art images We also include: Perfect Worlcs, Perfect Works for
Kids, Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia. Compton’s Reference Collection, Windows 95 Primer. Internet Mania, Multimedia MBA,
Resume Designer, Quicken Special Edition, Corel Print House, Compton’s Ocean Explorers, T\im Around T\irtle and Pandora’s Box
Why CyherMax?
In the nine years CyberMax has been in the
computer business, we’ve learned what it takes
to design and build quality systems.
• Ranked in the Top 1 0 of direct vendors
• The latest in name-brand technology
• Custom configurations
• Choice of CPU platform
• Recognized for excellence in industry reviews
• Comprehensive support programs
• 30-day money back guarantee
Warranty
At CyberMax, we realize that our commitment to the
customer does not end when their system leaves the
assembly line. In fact it’s just the beginning:
• 3-year limited warranty on parts
• One full year of on-site service
• 30-day money back guarantee and
toll-free technical support.
Your new system
is shipped via
CyberMax
Computer, Inc.
133 N. 5th St. Allentown, PA 18102 (610) 770-1808
1 - 800 - 345-9065
|4r| Canada I 800 345-8039
To order a free CyberMax catalog, visit us at
wnww.cyhmax.com
CyhcrllM Krrpu VUa, Uwlerrud, IMicovtT, Anetiesn Expena. pnfiwd chech* uni eWcUook wire limaaTm. Purehare ordm (rooi psv>
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Copyrighted material
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1 St Across the Finishing Line
Full Processor Support
IstMainboard
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Cross the finishing line first with FIC's IstMainboard Series
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C I Msieazine BAPt-'o Sys.Marii 95
Performance Comparison Chari
465
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E-Moil; mkf©ssl .fic.com.tw
Ail I'odemorks used herem ore *he reguiered property ol their own respecftve owr>ers Specificofions subject to chortge wllhout notice
Cf * W HSfHISr
^ ^ IJ. — 19. 03. 1997
13 .^ 19 . 0 3 . 1 9 9 7
Boolb No.: HI3. E10
Copyrighted material
Pentium'
*B«Kd un video, audio and image pioceviing elements of ihc Iniel Media Benchmark
The Intel Invide Logo and Peniium are regiMcred iridemarks and MMX t» a trademark of Intel Corporation.
c<r
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PCWEEK Windows
Did you know you can test your computers using the very
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Copyrighted m<
Years of Excellence
Just a few awards UMAX has won for the past ten years.
MACWORLD
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TOP 100
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UMAX Flatbed Scanners
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n
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V
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Over the years, UMAX has extended its business from scanners to personal
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innovative computing solutions that Increase productivity and efficiency for
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UMAX PowerPC Computers
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UMAX
UMAX
www.umax.com
UMAX Technologies, Inc.
3S61 Gateway Blvd..
Fremont. CA 94538. U.S.A.
Tel:+1-51O*6S1-8803
Fax; +1-510-651-6834
Toll Free : (800) 562-0311
UMAX Data Systems, Inc.
8F. 66. Nanking East Road, Sec. 3.
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Tel : ♦886-2-517-0055, 517-0066
Fax: ♦886-2-517-2017
email; markcomdsmtp.umax.com.tw
UMAX Systems GmbH
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Tel : ♦49-2154-91870
Fax: ♦49-2154-918799
Pentium”
Iprocessor
ine Intel Iruide Logo arxl Pentium are registered
trademarks and MMX is a trademark of Intel
Corporation. All rights reserved. Copyrightl997. All
tradenurks are properties of their respective compa-
nies.
Announcing
Umax
The High Performance Multimedia PC
1 66 MHz/200 MHz Intel Pentium® Processor
with MMX^“ Technology
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Copyrighted malsrial
Can you imagine a Pentium* processor-based system that doesn't need jumpers to select CPU parameters?
Upgrading your Pentium* processor-based system by yourself was once an unattainable dream.
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HALL12/A01
The iRitl InsKle logo and Pontium Processor are regisiered inidcmarks ot Intel Corporation ABIT logo « o registered trademark ol ABIT Compuler Corp
AH other brand rtam*» and irsdemarVs are the property of irtorr respective owners 1997 ABIT Computer Corporation All ngnts reserved
Copyrighted material
WHY 1997
TOGO
• Mini Tower Model
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Copyrighted material
PC Tech /Tutor
By Jeff Prosise
Building Applications with Visual C++, Part 4
This time we draw our game’s graphical elements on-screen.
Y ou've joined a lesson in progress. For
the past three issues, we've been learn-
ing about programming in Visual C++
by writing a simple tic-tac-toe applica-
tion for Windows. The game is played on a 5-
by 5-square grid, and the object is to line up
four consecutive X's or O’s horizontally, verti-
cally, or diagonally.
App Wizard started us off by generating the
code we used as the skeleton for our applica-
tion. Next, we added to the view an OnLBullon-
Down handler, which displays a message box
when a square is clicked with the left mouse
button. We've also developed a document class
that includes the infrastructure necessary to
store the X's and O’s a user enters and to keep
track of whose turn it Ls. The goal in this column
is to wire the document and the view together
so that clicking an empty square places an X or
O at the proper location in the grid. Our appli-
cation will then be complete except for a few
details, which we'll polish off next time.
ONLBUTTONDOWN REVISITED
To be able to have our application draw
X's and O’s in response to mouse clicks, we
need to modify the view’s OnLButtonDown
function. The function already includes hit-
testing logic that allows the application to
ignore clicks outside of the playing grid.
The next step is to replace the code that dis-
plays a message box when a square is clicked
with code that places an X or O in an empty
square.
The finished OnLButtonDown handler
is shown in Figure 1. When a square is
clicked, the updated version of OnLButton-
Down calls the document’s GetSquare func-
tion to determine if there is an X or O in the
square. If GetSquare returns 0, the square
is empty, and OnLButtonDown calls the doc-
ument's IsItXsTurn function to determine
whether an X or O should be inserted. It then
calls the document’s AddX or AddO func-
tion to record an X or O at the appropriate
location in the grid, followed by the view’s
DrawX or DrawO.
DRAWING X'S AND O'S
If you try to rebuild the application after mak-
ing the modifications shown in Figure 1. you'll
gel error messages from the compiler, because
OnLButtonDown calls a pair of view func-
tions — DrawX and DrawO — that haven’t
been written yet. The next logical step, then, is
to implement those functions.
Figure 2 shows the finished DrawX and
DrawO functions. Both are members of the
view class CTicView. and both use CDC output
functions to draw. DrawX creates a red pen 10
units wide (or one-tenth of a logical inch, in
the MM_LOENGLISH mapping mode) with
the statement
CPen pen (PS.SOLID, 10. RGB (255. 0,0));
It then draws a pair of crisscrossing lines with
the statements
pDC->MoveTo (rect.left, rect.top);
pDC->L1neTo (rect. right,
rect. bottom):
pDC->MoveTo (rect.left,
rect. bottom):
pDC->L1neTo (rect. right, rect.top);
Similarly, DrawO creates a blue pen 10
units wide with the statement
CPen pen (PS_S0LID. 10. RGB (0. 0.
265));
void CTicView: :0nLButton0own(UINT nFlags. CPoint point)
1
//
// Get a pointer to the document.
//
CTicDoc* pDoc “ GetDocument ();
//
// Get a OC and convert point to logical coordinates.
//
CClientDC dc (this):
dc.SetMapMode (MH_L0ENGLISH) :
dc.OPtoLP (Apoint):
//
// Hit test the grid and draw an X or 0 If
// appropriate.
//
BOOL bOuit - FALSE;
for Unt 1=0: i<5 && ibQuit; 1++) {
for (int j«0: j<5 && ibQuit; j++) {
if (m_rect[1][j3.PtInRect (point)) {
if (pDoc->GetSquare (i. j) 0) I
if (pDoc->IsItXsTurn ()) (
pDoc->AddX (i, J):
DrawX (Adc. Am_rect[i ][j) ) ;
)
else {
pDoc->AddO (i. j):
DrawO (Adc. Am_rect[i][j]);
//
// Let the base class do its thing.
//
CView: :OnLButtonDown(nFl ags . point):
FMRRE t: The finished Onl.ltuiionDown function.
•■iTial
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAC5AZINE 317
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PC TECH
Tutor
void CTIcVlew: rOrawX (CDC* pDC. CRect* pRect)
(
n
// Make a local copy of the rectangle and shrink It.
n
CRect rect:
rect.CopyRect (pRect):
rect.DeflateRect (10. 10);
//
// Create a red pen and use It to draw an X.
//
CPen pen (PS_S0LID. 10. RGB (255. 0. 0)):
CPen* pOldPen • pDC->SelectObJect (4pen);
pDC->MoveTo (rect. left. rect. top);
pDC->L1neTo (rect. right, rect. bottom);
pOC->MoveTo (rect. left. rect. bottom) ;
pDC->LineTo (rect. right, rect. top);
pDC->SelectObject (pOldPen);
)
void CT1cView::DrawO (COC* pOC. CRect* pRect)
(
//
// Make a local copy of the rectangle and shrink It.
//
CRect rect;
rect.CopyRect (pRect);
rect.DeflateRect (10, 10);
//
// Create a blue pen and use it to draw an 0.
//
CPen pen (PS.SOLID. 10. RGB (0. 0. 255));
CPen* pOldPen = pOC->SelectObject (&pen);
pDC->SelectStockObject (NULL_BRUSH) ;
pDC*>E111pse (rect);
pDC->SelectObject (pOldPen);
)
FI6UIIE S: The view class’s DrawX and DrawO functions.
and draws an O using MFC’s CDC::Ellipse
function:
pOC->Ellipse (rect);
In both cases, the pen is selected into the de-
vice context with CDC::SelectObject before
(• Kw M
Distal i«r}ifi
□□HDD
KHDDC
□□□HC
Km*
FIGURE 3: Finally, X's and O's!
anything is drawn and selected back out when
drawing is complete:
CPen* pOldPen = pDC->SelectObject
(&pen) :
pDC->SelectObject (pOldPen);
CPen is the MFC class that represents GDI
pens — logical objects used to draw lines and
curves. Unless a pen is selected into a device
context. LineTo. Ellipse, and other CDC
functions use the device context's default
pen. which draws black lines just I pixel
322 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. ml
wide. When you select a pen or other GDI
object into a device context, you should
select it back out before the CDC object rep-
resenting the device context is deleted or
allowed to go out of scope. In order to select
a pen out of a device context, you must se-
lect another pen in. Thai’s why both DrawX
and DrawO save the CPen pointer returned
by SelectObject. That pointer identifies the
pen that was previously selected into the de-
vice context. Passing the pointer
back to SelectObject before the
function ends selects the default
pen back into the device context
and deselects the CPen that was
selected earlier.
When CDC::Ellipse draws a cir-
cle or ellipse, it borders the figure
with the pen that's currently se-
lected into the device context, and
fills the figure’s interior w’ith the
current brush. A brush is a GDI
object that's used to paint pixels
on a display surface. Like a pen. it
must be selected into a device
context before functions such
as CDC::Ellipse will use it. We
want our O to be drawn with a
hollow interior, so before calling
CDC::Ellipse. the view’s DrawO
function selects a NULL brush —
which draws nothing — into the
device context with the following
statement:
pDC*>SelectStockObject
(NULL_BRUSH):
NULL.BRUSH is one of several
supplied drawing objects that an application
can select into a device context with CDC:
SelectStockObject. DrawO doesn’t bother to
deselect the brush from the device context
after drawing is complete, because with stock
objects, unlike conventional drawing objects,
that isn't necessary.
After you add the DrawX and DrawO
functions shown in Figure 2 to the view, re-
build the application and test it by clicking a
void CTIcVlew: :0n0raw(CDC* pDC)
(
CTIcOoc* pDoc “ 6etDocument( ) ;
ASSERT_VALIO(pDoc);
//
// Set the mapping mode to MM_L0ENGL1SH.
// where 1 unit * 0.01 Inch.
//
pDC->SetHapMode (MM_L0EHGLISH) ;
//
// Draw the playing grid.
n
for (int i«0; 1<5; i++) {
for (Int j=0: J<5; j++) (
pDC->Rectangle (m_rect[i][j]):
BYTE bVal = pDoc->GetSquare (1. J);
if (bVal = 1) // Draw an X
DrawX (pDC, Sm_rect[i ][j] ) :
else 1f (bVal = 2) // Draw an 0
DrawO (pOC. im_rect[1][j]):
1
1
)
FIGURE 4; The finished OnDraw function.
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few squares with the left mouse button.
Clicking an empty square should produce a
red X or a blue O (see Figure 3). Clicking a
square that already contains an X or O
should do nothing.
There’s still one small problem, though.
To demonstrate, add a few Xls and O’s to the
playing grid and then minimize the window.
When you restore the window, the X’s and
O’s will have vanished. What happened?
Simple: We modifed OnLButtonDown to
draw X’s and O’s in response to mouse
clicks, but we still need to update the view’s
OnDraw handler to draw the X’s and O’s
when the view is repainted. The infrastruc-
ture is already in place, because we can
use the document’s GetSquare function to
determine what, if anything, each square
contains, and we can use the DrawX and
DrawO functions that we’ve already written
to do the drawing.
UPDATING THE ONDRAW FUNCTION
Figure 4 shows the updated OnDraw func-
tion. Formerly, the nested for loop that iter-
ates through the squares simply redrew the
squares by calling CDC::Rectangle. Now it
redraws the squares and calls DrawX or
DrawO when CTicDoc::GetSquare returns
a nonzero value. After updating OnDraw as
shown, test it by drawing some X’s and O’s
and then minimizing and restoring the win-
dow to force the application to repaint. The
window should come back up looking just as
it did before it was minimized.
At long last, we have a working applica-
tion! In fact, it’s probably nearer completion
than you realize. For example, the New
command in the File menu works even
though we haven’t explicitly written any
code for it. Try it. Choose New from the File
menu to erase any X’s and O’s currently dis-
played in the grid. It works, because MFC
provides a handler for the File I New com-
mand that indirectly calls our document’s
OnNewDocument function. Recall from the
past issue that CTicDoc;:OnNewDocument
zeroes out all the squares in the grid. After
our OnNewDocument code is executed,
MFC invalidates the view to force a repaint.
Then, when the view’s OnDraw function is
called, it draws empty squares. The Print
and Print Preview commands work, too,
both courtesy of MFC.
In the next installment of this column, we'll
finish up our application by adding code to
make the File menu’s Open, Save, and Save
As commands functional. We’ll let MFC do
the bulk of the work, so our job will be sur-
prisingly easy. □
Jeff Prosise is a contributing editor of PC
Magazine and the author of Programming
Windows 95 with MFC, published by Micro-
soft Press.
326 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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O 6
PC Tech/ Power Programming
ByZan Oliphant
Telnet and Windows 95
A bare-bones client shows you how to develop telnet applications.
T elnet was introduced in the early 198()s
as a generalized, 8-bit, bidirectional
method of communication between a
virtual terminal device and a computer.
A virtual terminal device is different from a
nonvirtual terminal, also known as a dumb
terminal. As personal computer prices go
down, dumb terminals are harder to find.
Many of them are just a screen and keyboard
with a serial interface to a computer. PCs,
with local processors, memory, and disk stor-
age, are much more versatile and are rapidly
replacing dumb terminals. About ten years
ago, when I worked at a Unix-based com-
puter manufacturer, only upper manage-
ment got their own PCs, while the rest of us
were stuck with terminals connected at 9,600
bits per second. Those lucky PC users were
running a DOS version of telnet to connect to
the Unix hosts.
Telnet is not limited to Unix. Most multiuser
computers have some sort of telnet server. The
idea behind telnet is to provide a generic inter-
face to any computer on a TCP/lP-based net-
work. regardless of hardware or operating sys-
tem. Telnet was originally specified in the
Internet Requests for Comments (RFCs) 854
through 861. (An RFC is one of thousands
of documents that specify the protocols and
policies of the Internet. You might check out
www.uwaterloo.ca/uw_infoserv/rfc.html for a
good listing of RFCs.)
In today's world, the Internet is a huge,
worldwide TCP/IP network with millions
of computers attached to it. Many of these
computers are Web servers that store files
for Web pages on the Internet. Some happy
person, commonly called a Webmaster, has
to manage the files for a given Web page.
Many of those Webmasters are using telnet
in conjunction with File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) to manage their Web files. A common
Web-page management scenario is to use
FTP for uploading files (images. HTML, and
so on) and telnet for server file system man-
agement tasks like creating directories or
deleting files. Though some Web presence
providers allow only FTP access, most give
telnet access also.
With the tremendous popularity of the
Web today, you can see why telnet is becom-
ing better known in the PC world. Good evi-
dence of this is the large number of telnet
clients for Windows systems.
This article will show you how to write a
line-mode telnet client for Windows 95 using
Windows Sockets (Winsock). the most popu-
lar TCP/IP interface on the Windows plat-
form. Windows sockets are derived from
Berkeley sockets, introduced in 1984 with
the Berkeley Software Distribution version
(4.2BSD) of Unix. (You can read more about
sockets in “Windows-to-Unix Sockets,” PC
Magazine, February 18. 1997.)
The example covered in this article breaks
from traditional Windows programming
by using console mode. A console-mode
program is a Win32 application that looks
identical to a DOS command line appli-
cation. The example uses 32-bil Windows
API functions to handle threads for both
socket and keyboard interfaces. With multi-
ple threads, we can avoid using an event-
driven window for handling I/O. as was pop-
ular for Windows 3 jt programming. Addi-
tionally, removing extra code required for
graphical windows allows us to concentrate
on the telnet protocol.
THE PROTOCOL
Unlike FTP. where separate connections are
established for control and data, telnet works
with a single TCP connection for both user
data and control. By control, I mean data se-
quences that have special meaning to either
the client or server outside of the normal
data flow. Because the telnet protocol inter-
laces control commands with data, telnet
commands must be preceded with a special
escape character, called Interpret as Com-
mand (lAC). When either the telnet client or
the server sees an lAC (defined as decimal
255) in the data stream, a parser retrieves
further control functions. (Decimal 255 can
be sent with no special meaning by preced-
ing it with anIAC.)
The telnet command structure minimally
consists of 2 bytes. The first is always the es-
cape character. I AC. The second is a high-level
telnet command. RFC 854 defines these com-
mands as shown in the table below. You can
read up on them in RFC 854.
Many of the commands are self-evident.
But one group requires some explanation.
These are the option command.^, and if you
look at the command list, you'll see there
are four of them: WILL. WONT. DO, and
DONT. Telnet options, the heart of any tel-
net implementation, allow the negotiation
of things like terminal type, binary mode,
echo, and terminal speed, and they are han-
dled in a special way. (There are too many
options to list here; check out RFC 856
through 861 for more.)
TELNET COMMANDS
COMMMIld
Dtcimel
Meaning
SE
■ 2«
: End of subnegotiation.
NOP
; 241
: No operation.
Data Mark
; 242
I The data streatn portion of a Syn^.
Break
: 243
i Network virtual termmal BBK character.
hitemjptPro^
? 244
i Interrupt cunent process.
Abort Output
^ 245
: Abort output without killing process.
Are You There
: 246
: Show that the connection is alive.
Erase Charac^
■ T247
: Delete preceding character.
Erase Line
"'T'248
: Delete current line.
Go Ahead
249
i Request for input (for had-dutriex connections).
S8
' Start of subnegotiation.
WILL*
"Tai
i Offer to begin performing option {or confirm that you are performing option).
WONT*
: 252
! Refuse to perform (or continue performing) option.
DO*
""[ 2 ^
: Request that the other party perform option (or confimt you are expecting the other
: party to perform option).
DONT*
! Demand that the other party stop performing option (or confirm that you no longer
' expect the other party to perform option).
MARCH 25 . 1997 PC MAGAZINE 333
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PC TECN
Power Programming
Unlike other telnet commands, telnet op-
tions require a 3-byte sequence: lAC. fol-
lowed by option command, followed by an
option code, which references the type of
option. Option commands can be sent by ei-
ther party in the protocol. The meaning of an
option command depends on whether it is
being used to initiate or respond to a request.
The W1 LL and WONT commands, for exam-
ple. indicate an offer to begin or an intention
to stop performing an option when they are
used to initiate a dialog. The opposite party
would respond either with DO, for confirma-
tion — “by all means, perform the option
you've offered to do” — or with DONT. Con-
versely, DO or DONT, when used first, indi-
cate a request for the other party to perform
or stop performing an option: they are ac-
knowledged with WILL, for confirmation —
“okay, ril perform the option you’ve asked
me to do” — or WONT. To prevent an endless
loop, a few rules apply. First, you may request
only a change in option status. Don’t send a
DO just to announce what mode you're in.
Second, if you receive a request to enter a
mode that you're already in. the request
should not be acknowledged.
In this column, we will look at processing
telnet options for a bare-bones telnet imple-
mentation. Again, make sure to read the
aforementioned RFCs for more information.
THE SAMPLE CODE
You can get the source code for this sample
from PC Magazine Online. This sample is a
skeleton for a telnet implementation, meant
as a learning tool and not as a truly usable
telnet program. You can use what you learn
from this article to aeate your own telnet pro-
gram or perhaps add telnet capability to a
Windows program.
Need a real telnet? Windows 95 ships with
Microsoft Telnet, located in the Windows di-
rectory as Telnet.exe. Also, there are plenty of
Winsock telnet programs available as share-
ware for both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.
The source code discussed in this article pro-
duces a Windows 95 console-mode program
that uses 32-bit Winsock for a line-mode ver-
sion of telnet.
The first thing the example program does,
after checking command line parameters, is
to start Windows Sockets. Here we request
Winsock, Version 1.1. by specifying a 1 in
both the high and low bytes of a Windows
WORD:
WORD wVersion = MAKEWORDt 1 . 1 ) :
WSADATA wsaOata:
// Start Windows Sockets
WSAStartup (wVersion. AwsaData);
Winsock implementation data is returned in
the wsaDala structure. Our sample doesn’t
look at that structure, as it contains version in-
formation along with other socket information
that we don’t need to be concerned about.
Next, the code gets an IP address for the tel-
net host name, passed in as the program's first
argument:
// Get IP Address
if (!(ph » gethostbyname (argv[l])))
{
printf ("Can't get host: Xs\n",
argvCl] ) :
exlt(l):
)
It’s important to note here that the call to get -
hostbyname( ) will not return until the pointer to
the host entry structure is returned containing
the resolved 1 P address. Though not a big prob-
lem with a console-mode Windows 95 program,
a window-based application should preferably
use WSAAsyncGetHostByName( ). This Winsock
API function is asynchronous and will not block,
but you need a window to use it, which is why
our console-mode application doesn’t.
After the IP address is returned from
gethostbyname! ). a socket is created with a
call to the Winsock API function socket!).
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PC TECH
Power Programming
Notice that the parameters AF_1NET, SOCK_
STREAM, and lPPROTO_TCP are used to in-
dicate the Internet address family, a stream-
ing connection-oriented socket, and TCP
protocol, respectively;
// Create the socket
SOCKET s:
1f ((S * socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM.
IPPR0T0_TCP)) < 0)
{
printf ("Socket Error\n"):
exit(-l);
}
Now we need to bind the newly created
socket with a local address. A call to the Win-
sock API function bi nd ( ) requires a pointer to
a SOCKADDR_IN structure, which must con-
tain the address family, local address, and local
port. In this example, we specify a family of
AFJNET and let Winsock fill in our local ad-
dress and port by putting INADDR_ANY for
s 1 n_addr . s_add r and 0 for s 1 n_port.
SOCKADOR_INServerAddr:
memset ((char *)4ServerAddr. 0.
sizeof (ServerAddr) ) ;
ServerAddr.sin_family » AF_INET;
ServerAddr. sin_addr.s_addr =
htonl(INADDR_ANY):
ServerAddr. s1n_port * 0:
bind (s, (struct sockaddr
*)&ServerAddr , si zeof( ServerAddr) ) ;
Next, we reuse the ServerAddr struc-
ture for a call to the Winsock API connect ( ),
which establishes a connection to the tel-
net host that was specified in the command
line. Notice the family is again AFJNET.
The address is taken from the results of
our previous call to gethostbyname( ), which
had returned a pointer to a hostent struc-
ture. Port 23 is used for s1n_port in net-
work byte order with a call to htonsO. Port
23 is called a reserved port and is always
used for telnet.
// Connect to UNIX
ServerAddr. s1n_fam1ly= AF_INET;
ServerAddr.s1n_addr.S_un.S_un_b.s_bl
* ph->h_addr[0] ;
ServerAddr.s1n_addr.S_un.S_un_b.s_b2
= ph->h_addr[l] :
ServerAddr. s1n_addr.S_un.S_un_b.s_b3
- ph->h_addr[2];
ServerAddr . si n_addr. S_un .S_un_b. s_b4
- ph->h_addr[3];
// Port 23 is for Telnet
ServerAddr. s1n_port= htons(23);
1f ((rc = connect (s.
(struct sockaddr *)&ServerAddr.
slzeof(ServerAddr))) < 0)
(
printf ("Connect ErrorXn");
exlt(-l):
}
Again you should know that a call to
connectO will block for an undetermined
amount of time. As an alternative in a non-
console application, consider using WSAA-
syncSelectO with FD.CONNECT to avoid
any blocking. Our sample simply waits for
a connection.
Once a connection is established, the sam-
ple creates a separate thread to handle user
input with a call to CreateThread( ). This Win-
32 API function creates another thread of
execution within the same process. Why an-
other thread? Using two threads (the first
being the main application thread) allows one
thread to block as it waits for data from the
socket connection while the other thread
blocks for user input. This technique, not pos-
sible in DOS-based Windows 3. 1 . avoids using
the Winsock asynchronous extensions (pref-
aced with WSA) that I have been mentioning
Giv«»s PC users
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PC TECH
Power Programming
as alternatives. In our example, the thread
is created with the default stack size, a start-
ing address called KeyBoardThreadC ), and
the parameter of the socket descriptor for
that routine. The thread ID is returned in
dwThreadlO. and the handle is returned to
hThread:
// Create an Input thread
DWORD dwThreadID:
HANDLE hThread = CreateThread (NULL.
LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE):
KeyBoardThread. (void *)s. 0.
AdwThreadlD) :
After the input thread is created, the code
enters a loop calling the Winsock API func-
tion recvO and parsing the received data
with a call to our routine ParseTel netData ( ).
The recv ( ) function is called with the socket
descriptor, input buffer, input buffer length,
and flags:
// Enter receive loop
while (cnt && (cnt !- S0CKET_ERR0R) )
{
cnt = recv (s, InBuff,
sizeof(InBuff), 0):
ParseTel netData (InBuff, cnt, s);
1
The number of bytes received is returned to
cnt. if no error occurred. A value of SOCKET.
ERROR is returned to indicate an error. If
the connection has been gracefully closed,
a value of 0 is returned. Either value will
end the while loop. ParseTel netData ( ) also
checks for these values to avoid processing in-
valid data.
The ParseTel netOataO function is avail-
able for download from PC Magazine Online.
Within this routine are two global values
maintained to track special telnet commands
and options. These are ucIAC and ucTelnet*
Command. They maintain the previous lAC
character or command option and must be
saved in case a command sequence is broken
up between recv ( ) calls.
ParseTel netData( ) begins processing the
data chunk by entering a for loop to process
each byte of data. Within that loop, a previ-
ous telnet command is identified by looking
at ucTelnetCommand. Our simple telnet im-
plementation only looks at the DO, DON’T.
WILL, and WON’T commands, as defined
in this C code by DOTEL. DONTTEL. WILL-
TEL. and WONTTEL. The example, a really
dumb telnet, will only respond to one DO
option, and that is Suppress Go Ahead
(SGA). The telnet Go Ahead character was
designed for use with half-duplex connec-
tions — it’s like saying “over" after speaking
on a two-way radio. Since our connection is
full-duplex, we avoid the complexity of the
Go Ahead character (decimal 249) by sup-
pressing it. Any other DO requests are re-
sponded to with a WONT. DONT. WILL, and
WONT are simply ignored.
If there was no previous command, the
next thing looked for is a previous I AC char-
acter. As we noted, I AC stands for Interpret as
Command and indicates the start of a telnet
command sequence. The sample code ignores
all commands except for DO, DONT. will,
and WONT. Other commands are included in
the code as comments for future implementa-
tion. Notice that a double lAC passes through
as an escaped character, though this code does
nothing with it.
The third else If statement in the Parse-
TelnetDataO function looks for the actual
lAC. The else If statements are in reverse
lime order, as it's easier to code that way. By
reverse time order, I mean that the bottom of
the loop checks for the attention character
(lAC), the middle of the loop checks for the
command, and the top checks for the com-
mand’s option (if any). If the last else If
statement is not TRUE, the code enters a final
else to handle regular telnet stream data.
Here, after making sure the character is print-
able, a call to putcharC ) is made to print the
character on the console.
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Copyrighted material
n TECH
Power Programming
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE THREAD. . .
Earlier, we created another thread with a
starting routine called KeyBoardThreacK ),
whose main duty is to read keystrokes from
the keyboard by blocking on the _getch()
Win32 library call. When _getch( ) returns, a
value of Oxlb (ESC) causes the program to ter-
minate. Calls toc1osesocket( ),USACleanup( ),
and Ex1 tProcess ( )are made for that termina-
tion. The call to Ex1tProcess( ) will also en-
sure that thread 1 is ended.
Provided that Esc was not pressed, the
character is sent to the telnet host by a call to
Winsock send ( ) , with socket descriptor, bu^er,
buffer length, and special flags:
// KeyBoardThread
//
int KeyBoardThread (SOCKET s)
{
char ch;
while (ch » _getchO)
1
if (ch -= 0xlb)
{
closesocket (s);
USACleanupO;
ExitProcess (0):
)
send (s. &ch. 1, 0):
)
return 0:
1
As you can see, here we are using
sendO, but before, in the ParseTelnet-
DataO function, sendnO was used. Why?
Windows Sockets documentation states.
“On nonblocking stream-oriented sock-
ets. the number of bytes written can be be-
tween 1 and the requested length, depend-
ing on buffer availability on both the local
and foreign hosts.” KeyBoardThread( } al-
ways writes a single byte, whereas in
ParseTelnetOata( ), 3 bytes are written,
making it necessary for a special routine
called sendnO to ensure that all 3 bytes
are actually written:
// sendn
//
Int sendn (SOCKET socket, char *ptr.
int nbytes)
(
int nleft, nwritten;
nleft » nbytes:
while (nleft > 0)
I
nwritten * send (socket, ptr,
nbytes. 0);
if (nwritten <= 0) /* error */
1
return nwritten;
)
nleft -= nwritten:
ptr += nwritten:
)
return (nbytes - nleft):
}
RUNNING IT
There’s not much to say about running the ap-
plication. Using a DOS command prompt, type:
zantel hostname
where hostname is the name of a telnet host, like
login.com. It may take a while to get to a log-on
prompt, depending on your connection. Once
logged on, you should be able to execute any
line-mode commands. Screen-oriented pro-
grams that require a full-screen terminal type,
such as a VT-100. will not work correctly. To exit
the program, hit Esc or just logoff. □
Zan Oliphant is president ofZan Software,
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CIRCLE 101 ON READER SERVICE CARD
By James C. Collins
Beyond CGI: Using the llPIs
Alternatives for adding interactive power to your Web site.
F or ils intended purpose — page descrip-
tion — HTML is just fine. But when you
need customized features like guest
books, access counters, or online order-
ing. HTML doesn’t offer much help. Those
features must be implemented on the server,
where they are not built-in. The most com-
mon way to extend HTML is through CGI
(Common Gateway Interface), but most
servers also have hooks that let you extend
HTML’s ability to interact with browsers.
CGI scripts are programs executed by the
server in response to user actions. (For an
overview, see “How the Common Gateway
Interface Works.” PC Magazine, September
24, 19%.) CGI lets Webmasters add common
features, such as counters and date/time dis-
plays. online order forms, chat pages, and
search engines.
CGI is popular for several reasons. Many
prewritten scripts are freely available, the ma-
jority of them for a variety of platforms and
for most of the popular Web servers. But CGI
has several drawbacks. Each time a CGI script
is spawned, it creates an additional process
on the server machine, slowing the server’s
response time. Also, if the CGI script is not set
up correctly, security holes can occur on the
server, rendering the Web site vulnerable to
attacks by hackers. Another problem is that
it is difficult to mainiain slate — that is, to pre-
serve information about the client from one
HTTP request to the next.
An alternative to modifying or extending
the abilities of the server is to use its applica-
lion programming interface (API). The API
allows the developer to modify the server’s
default behavior and give it new capabilities.
When a server’s default behavior is modi-
fied — for example, in logging transactions —
the server uses the code in an API module
instead of its own built-in code. When func-
tionality is added to a server — such as data-
base access — the API acts as an interface be-
tween the server and another application.
Whether modifying or extending server
functionalitv this wav, a developer doesn't
You must add additional code and recompile
and relink the server code.)
In addition to addressing some of the draw-
backs of CGI, the use of an API offers other fea-
tures and benefits, such as the ability to share
data and communications resources with a
server, the ability to share function libraries,
and additional capabilities in authentication
and error handling. Another advantage of API
applications is their ability to maintain state.
Because an API application remains in mem-
ory between client requests, information about
a client can be stored and used again when the
client makes another request.
There are, however, some drawbacks to
this approach. Unlike CGI. API functions are
server-specific, because each server has a
different API. Buggy API code can crash a
server. And more complexity is involved in
developing the code, which must manage
multiple process threads and clean up mem-
ory after it is run.
In this article we will concentrate primarily
on two server vendors’ APIs, those for use
with Netscape’s servers and Microsoft's Inter-
net Information Server. We will not discuss
the exact specifics of developing API functions
for each type of server. That information is
provided in the documentation accompany-
ing the server software.
THE NETSCAPE SERVER API
you are essentially extending the server’s
code, familiarity with how the server responds
to requests is a prerequisite. Knowledge of the
data structures and public functions you’ll use
to interface with the server is essential. Net-
scape has provided documentation for these
issues on its Web site, and we will discuss them
briefly here.
When the server starts, it searches the Win-
dows Registry for the API object files and
loads each in turn. Under Windows NT. these
object files are DLL files. The functions in
them are categorized by the types of requests
they respond to. In the Netscape server model,
a client sends a request to the server and the
server sends a response. The response process
involves several steps. In order, they are:
• authorization translation.
• name translation.
• path checking.
• object type checking (handling MIME types).
• sending a response to a client, and
• logging a transaction.
Implementing each of these steps involves
what Netscape terms server
application fimctions, which an
NSAPI application modifies or
replaces. The function catego-
ries are located in the NSAPI in
one of eight server directives,
shown in Figure 1. Each direc-
tive corresponds to one of the
request-processing steps out-
lined above, and each function
is associated with a directive.
The Netscape servers come with
sample C code demonstrating
how the default behavior for
each directive can be changed.
Netscape API DLLs can be written in any
language that allows the creation of DLLs,
including C, C++, and Delphi. The actual
creation of an NSAPI application is beyond
the scope of this article, but we can look at the
installation process common to most NSAPI
applications.
Once an API program has been corr iled
NSAPI SERVER DIRECTIVES
Directive
Action
InilTrans
Instantiates a shared resource on server staa-up
AuthTrans
Authenticates users
NameTrans
Handles redirection.
PathCheck
Validates user's permission to aaess the requested files
Objectlype
Encompasses functions dealif>g with MIME types
Service
Responds to client requests, such as POST or GET
AddLog
Logs transactions.
Error
Handles errors
FWURE 1: Each NSA PI server directive corresponds to one of
the requeshprocessing steps used by the Netscape server, and
each API function is associated with a directive.
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PC TECH
Internet Took
scape server will be aware of it. This is
done in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\
Netscape\Hltpd-80\CurrentVersion\Startup.
Using RegEdit, you can add new keys and
values specific to the API application. After
modifying the Registry, reboot the server. If
the API application has been written and in-
stalled correctly, the new functions should
now be active.
If the process seems complicated, that's
because it is. If you need to extend the default
server functionality and you don't require any-
thing too esoteric, several third-party solutions
are available that give you the benefits of using
NSAPI while eliminating the do-il-yourself
parts. Two of the most common needs are data-
base access and redirection. (We'll discuss prod-
ucts that meet those needs in the following sec-
tion. More solutions are discussed later.) You
can find detailed information on NSAPI at home
.netscapexom/newsref/stdi'serverjapLhtml.
DATABASE ACCESS AND REDIRECTION
Spider Technologies' NetDynamics, a PC Mag-
azine Editors' Choice (“Web Database Tools,”
September 10. 1996). uses an application server
to cache database requests. NetDynamics
interfaces directly with a Netscape Web server
through an optimized NSAPI interface, avoiding
the need for handwritten code. A page wizard
guides the developer through the design of the
database interface. The actual engine is Java-
based. but that part is invisible to the developer.
HTML code to interface with the engine is gen-
erated by the application. An evaluation ver-
sion is available for downloading from the com-
pany’s Web site {www.netdynaftucs.com\ along
with ample documentation and examples of the
NetDynamics engine in use.
For redirection, look to Swiicheroo, from
Nu Tech Software Solutions. It allows redirec-
tion based on client browser type (called con-
tent negotiation). That means you can send
clients using Netscape browsers to one page,
clients using Internet Explorer to another, and
clients using other browsers to yet a third page.
You can also intercept requests for pages that
have been renamed or moved and redirect
clients to the appropriate pages. Switcheroo
uses NSAPI to interface with the server and
provides full support for multiple domains.
A complete list of products using the NSAPI
is available at cgi.neiscape.com/comprod/
server_central/server_add_ons.html.
THE MICROSOFT INTERNET SERVER API
Using MiCTOSoft's Internet Server API (ISAPI),
the API application interacts with the server
through an extension control block (ECB), a
data structure that contains information about
how the API processes a request. When a server
calls an application and passes an ECB. the
application uses the GetServerVariable and the
ReadOient functions to read client input. After
processing the input, the application uses the
WriteClient function to send data back to the
client and then calls the ServerSupportFunction
to tell the server it has finished processing the
request. ISAPI applications are installed using
the Internet Service Manager.
The ISAPI consists of two types of server
extensions, termed filters and applications.
Filters process, set up, or change requests be-
fore a server receives them, and they are
called with every client request. Filter DLLs
are referenced in the Registry and are ac-
cessed by the server upon start-up. Applica-
tions, however, must be requested by a client.
For example, an application called Foo.dll
would be invoked by http://www.mysite.com/
foo. dll? action =go.
In addition to the ISAPI. the OLEISAPI
allows your API extension to interface with
OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) Auto-
mation servers. This provides a way for devel-
opers using Visual Basic to interface with the
ISAPI. (ISAPI development requires either
Visual C++ or Delphi.) The OLEISAPI is a
subset of the ISAPI and is not officially sup-
ported by Microsoft. An excellent OLEISAPI
site is located at www.datawide.com/oleisapi.
An interesting alternative for Visual Basic
developers is provided by a company called
classTools {www.classtools.com). One class-
Tools product, webAction, provides an inter-
face by which VB can access ISAPI function-
ality and offers runtime debugging. A fully
functional demo version is available from the
company’s Web site.
For more information about ISAPI in gen-
eral, Stephen Genusa maintains an excellent
site at www.isapideveloper.net. It contains spec-
ifications, an FAQ, lots of source code, and links
to ISAPI consultants. And don't ignore the offi-
cial Microsoft ISAPI site: www.microsoft.com/
witi32dev/apie.xl/isapimrg.htm.
COMPARISON OF THE TWO APIs
NSAPI gives developers a finer level of con-
trol by allowing functions to work on various
levels, such as authentication, forms process-
ing, error handling, and logging. But developer
resources are poor if you haven’t joined Net-
scape's developer program. The sample code
that comes with the server is Unix-oriented, and
the documentation has the typical Unix terse-
ness. We were unable to find any indepen-
dent Web sites devoted to NSAPI development,
and we found only one public-domain nsapi
application with source code (NSNVBITF, dis-
cussed below).
By contrast, there is a plethora of docu-
mentation for Microsoft's ISAPI interface.
Genusa 's site should provide even a begin-
ner with enough information and examples
to start developing ISAPI applications, and
Microsoft's site has an abundance of well-
written, easy-to-understand documentation.
Regarding the learning curve required to
develop server-side applications, Microsoft’s
ISAPI seems more straightforward, and the
abundance of developer resources is a big help.
OTHER ALTERNATIVES
Several third-party tools let you add function-
ality to a server without the complexity of pro-
gramming to an API. Here is a brief look at
several of these.
Denali is the code name for Microsoft's
ActiveX scripting environment for its Internet
Information Server. Although still in beta at the
time of this writing, Microsoft has indicated that
Denali will provide server-side compiled scripts
for fast execution. Denali will offer native sup-
port for VBScript and JavaScript along with
support for other scripting languages, such as
Perl. Python, and REXX. through Active Script-
ing plug-ins. It will also support ActiveX com-
ponents. Included in Den^i is support for state
mantainence, database access, and content ne-
gotiation. Using content negotiation, a server
can determine whether a browser has support
for a particular feature, such as ffames, and can
offer alternative representations of the output.
Microsoft’s Web site offers more information
about Denali, at www.microsoft.com/infoserv.
FastCGI has been developed by Open Market
to allow developers to continue to use CGI ap-
plications with the added benefits of a server
API. Using the FastCGI interface, CGI applica-
tions are loaded once and continue to be resi-
dent. In this way, the performance problem of
the load-run-unload model is avoid^. FastCGI
is an elegant compromise between CGI and
API development. FastCGI is compatible with
all Web servers. More information is available
at www.fastcgLcom.
NSNVBITF, a DLL written by Steve Caine of
Caine, Farber & Gordon, allows applications
written in Visual Basic 3.0 to access the Net-
scape OLE Automation Object. NSNVBITF is
public-domain and freely rec^tributable, and it
comes with complete source code. It is available
at wwwI.cfg.com/vh/nsnvbitf/nsapLhtmL
Life.com's VBCode allows you to build Visual
Basic 4.0 applications that interface directly to
a server. Life.com also makes other server
extension products that interface with server
APIs. VBCode works with Microsoft, Net-
scape, and O’Reilly servers. More informa-
tion is available at www.lifecom.com.
iHTMU by Inline Information Services, is a
set of HTML extensions that are interpreted
and acted on by the iHTML DLL, which is con-
nected directly to a server as an API applica-
tion. iHTML offers more than 30 new HTML
functions, including ODBC support and 20
environment variables. iHTML runs on Win-
dows NT with Microsoft, Netscape, and Pro-
cess Web servers. A test version is available
for download from www.ihtml.com. □
James C. Collins is an Internet application de-
veloper in Washington, D.C. He can be reached
via e-mail, at pegasus@dgsys.com.
352 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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PC Tech/ Utilities
By NeilJ. Rubenking
Go Crazy with LogoMania!
Design a replacement for the Windows 95 animated logo.
W hen you start Windows 95, you see a
background of clouds, over which
floats the Windows 95 logo. Blue and
gray color bars pulse across the bot-
tom of the screen so you won’t think the com-
puter is frozen. But why should you gaze at a
Microsoft logo every lime your computer
starts? LogoMania lets you replace the stan-
dard logo with your own animated logo
bitmap. You can float your company's logo
over a hypnotic moving background, like the
PC Magazine logo in Figure 1 . or put a color-
changing company name in front of a serene
mountain landscape.
LogoMania lets you keep the animated and
static portions of the image in separate
bitmaps, which it merges for you. LogoMania
will take care of adjusting your input bitmaps
to the correct size and correct number of col-
ors, if necessary. It will even create animated
backgrounds, wild or subtle, for you. Once
you’ve created a Windows 95 animated logo
bitmap, you can preview it without leaving
LogoMania.
You can obtain LogoMania by download-
ing it from PC Magazine Online or by mail.
(Refer to the sidebar “Getting the Files” for
details.) The source code for LogoMania,
which was written with Delphi 2.0, Borland's
visual programming tool, is also provided for
those interested in seeing how it works.
HOW LOGOMANIA WORKS
Windows 95 creates the illusion of animation
in its start-up and shutdown logos using an
old technique known as palette animation. To
explain how this works, I need to start with
some background on Windows bitmaps.
A Windows bitmap file starts with a header
that includes handy information, such as the
picture's width and height in pixels, and it
ends with a huge chunk of data that lists the
color of every pixel in the picture. A 256-
color bitmap has a palette — a list of up to 256
colors, expressed as combinations of red,
green, and blue values from 0 to 255 — in
its header. Each pixel in the image is repre-
sented by a 1-byte index into the palette. That
way, a bitmap can include a wide variety of
colors yet still require just a single byte to
store each pixel.
When Windows 95 animates a logo bitmap,
it doesn't change the pixels at ail. Instead, it
changes the palette. Suppose palette-entry
255 contains bright red. and we change that
entry to bright green. All of the pixels that use
IN THIS
S S U E
LogoMania
LogoMania lets you
(lard Windows 95 logo
background with your ot
animated logo 1
LOGO
tf,-
place the sian-
and its cloudy
*71 personalized
iitmap.
entry number 255 will instantly change from
red to green. Windows 95's logo animation
simply involves cycling a set of adjacent
palette entries, starting with the last entry
(number 255) and working down. Windows
95 repeatedly moves the contents of each
palette entry that's involved in animation into
the next lower entry and moves the contents
of the lowest animation palette entry into the
last entry. For example, let's say that palette
entries 253, 254. and 255 contain the colors
yellow, green, and blue, respectively. After the
first frame of animation, entry 253 gets the
color from entry 254. 254 gets the contents
of 255, and 255 gels the previous contents of
253. Slots 253, 254. and 255 now contain
green, blue, and yellow, respectively. After
the second frame of animation, they con-
tain blue, yellow, and green. As the cycle
repeats, it looks as though the colors are mov-
ing from right to left. LogoMania lets you
create bitmaps that Windows can animate
using this technique.
USING LOGOMANIA
To install LogoMania, copy the files Logo-
mani.exe. Logomani.hip. and Logomani.cnt
to a directory on your hard disk. You may
wish to place a shortcut to Logomani.exe in
one of your Start menu folders. To uninstall
LogoMania. delete the three files you origi-
nally copied to your hard disk, along with
Logomani.ini. Logomani.gid, and Logomani
.fts (if WinHelp has created the last two
files, that is).
To create an animated logo bitmap, you
start with a bitmap that includes just the ani-
mated part. You can optionally add a second
bitmap defining the non-animated parts.
From your bitmaps. LogoMania will build a
new composite bitmap with the particular in-
ternal structure required for a Windo>vs 95
animated logo bitmap.
CREATING THE ANIMATION BITMAP
The first step in creating an animated logo
bitmap is to select or generate the animation
bitmap: LogoMania's Animation bitmap
pageAnimation_bitmap_page contains tools
to do this. You have three choices;
• Choose an existing bitmap and, if necessary,
force it to the size required by LogoMania.
• l^t LogoMania generate an animated
background for you by clicking the Generate
button.
FORPMGRAMMERSONiy LogoMania deals mainly with bitmaps and
palettes, but it doesn't make any serious use of the Delphi TBitmap object or of the
bitmap-handling facilities supplied by Windows. To obtain the axttrol it needs.
LogoMania manipulates the bitmaps as data files, without translating them into
images on the screen. The source code for LogoMania demonstrates
• how to read and write bitmaps by working directly with bitmap files:
• how to reduce the number of colors in a bitmap's palette; and
• how to create bitmap files from mathematical fomiulas.
SUPPORT Help for PC Magazine's free utilities can be obtained in our online
discussion areas, both on the World Wide {www.pcmag.com/discuss.hpn]
and, on ZD Net. in the Utilities section of ZD Net's TIPS Forum (GO ZNTTIPS). The
authors of current utilities generally visit this forum dally. You may find an
answer to your question simply by reading the messages posted in the forum. If
the author is not available and the forum sysops can't answer your question, the
Utilities column editor, who also checks this forum each
day. will contact the author for you.
WWW.PCMAG.COM
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 3SS
PC TECH
Utilities
FIGURE 1: In this animated logo bitmap, which was created
using LogoMania, yellow and blue circles expand behind
the PC Magazine logo.
• Use Windows Paint to create the animation
bitmap.
The first two options are by far the easiest
and can produce striking results. If you want
to create your animation bitmap from scratch
using Windows Paint, you’ll find instructions
for doing so in LogoMania^ online help.
When you first launch LogoMania, you’ll
see the Animation bitmap page (see Figure 2).
Click the Choose button to select a bitmap,
which must be 256-color and must have the
standard extension .BMP. If you want to use a
bitmap that isn’t 256-color, you must first load
the file into Windows Paint, select Save As,
and save it as a 256-color bitmap.
Once the bitmap is loaded, the Details but-
ton is enabled; click this button for detailed in-
formation about the bitmap. A reduced-size
thumbnail view of the bitmap will be displayed
for reference.
Every Windows 95 animated logo bitmap
must be precisely 320 by 400 pixels in size.
(Upon display, Windows 95 stretches it to 640-
by-400.) The same size restriction applies to
LogoMania’s animation and static bitmaps. If
the selected bitmap is not 320-by-400, Logo-
Mania will enable the Tile/Chop button. Qick
it to save a new version of the bitmap at the
correct size. A bitmap that’s too small will be
tiled to fill the space, while one that’s too large
will be chopped to the correct size. If the
bitmap is smaller than 640-by-400, the Center
button will be enabled. Qick it to create a 320-
by-400 bitmap, with the existing bitmap
centered horizontally and vertically. The area
surrounding the centered bitmap is set to
eitm»p | Wtm«p | L 090
£heo<«
LogoMacua_Ain amp
0«M I (MM
320i«00 (8 ccNort)
FIGURE 2: An animated logo bitmap always
starts with a bitmap defining Just the animated
part of the image. An optional static bitmap
defines non-animated parts.
356 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25.1997
an arbitrary color, which you can
change with Windows Paint.
When the loaded bitmap is 320-
by-400, the Tile/Chop and Center
buttons will be disabled and Logo-
Mania will scan all the pixels in the
bitmap, counting how many are
assigned to each palette color. At
this time, the Palette button is en-
abled. Clicking it brings up the
Palette Adjustment form, which
lets you change the colors associ-
ated with each palette entry in
use. Adjusting the palette isn’t
normally required, but it allows
advanced users to achieve im-
pressive animation effects. (See
the program^ online help for details.)
The background in Figure 1 was produced
by LogoMania’s Animated Background Gen-
erator form (see Figure 3), which you can
access by clicking on the
Generate button on the
Animation bitmap page.
Three of the controls on
this form determine the
pattern that will be used
to fill the bitmap, which
also has an effect on ani-
mation characteristics.
Shape defines the overall
pattern, such as circle,
square, or stripe. Direc-
tion is the direction of ap-
parent motion when the
bitmap is animated. And for most shapes, a
larger width produces a coarser pattern with
faster aj>parent motion.
The remaining controls in the Generator
dialog box define the color palette that will be
used. Click one of the three color boxes or
press Alt-1, Alt-2, or Alt-3 to set the fixed col-
ors. Choose the number of colors you want
LogoMania to generate and select one of the
four gradient styles:
ated using this form is always stored as Logo-
Mania_Gen.bmp, in the same directory as
the application. If you produce a totally awe-
some background that you want to save for
future use, just copy or rename LogoMania.
Gen.bmp.
CREATING THE STATIC BITMAP
Static bitmaps can be placed in the fore-
ground or the background; you can use any
bitmap you like. Figure 1 shows a static
bitmap of the PC Magazine logo floating in
the foreground over an animated back-
ground. Static backgrounds give a different
effect. For example, you could select a
scanned photo as the background and float
a color-changing animation bitmap over it.
The static bitmap is optional; if you omit it,
LogoMania will produce a 100 percent ani-
mated logo bitmap.
Like the animation bitmap, the static
LogoMania Aniwaled Backgiound Geneialot
S^ape
Brocade ^ Martdai II
Circle ^ Moire
C Oleg Stripes ^ Random
C Diamond ^ Rectangle
C Ellipse r* Sine
t' Fuzzy Circle ^ Spinner
r* HafFCircle <*■ Spiral
C HorzStnpes Square
^ Horz Waves Vert Stripes
r* Mandeiprot ^ Vertwaves
direction
r Out /Right /up
<• In /Left/ Down
iiDm
gradient
f? t->2
r
r i->2-»3
r 1 .*2*3-
Colors
^dm
r 4 r 38
r 1
re c 40
r 2
C 12 c 44
r 3
16 r 40
1" 20 52
r 5
24 r 56
r 6
r 28 r 60
r 7
c 32 c 64
r 6
Cancel ||[_ OK j|
1^2
Almost any combination of option set-
tings will produce an interesting background.
Feel free to experiment. LogoMania will re-
member the most recent settings you used in
the Animated Background Generator form,
so you can easily come back and fine-tune
your background bitmap. The bitmap cre-
FIGURE 3: LogoMania 's animated background generator can pro-
duce thousands of different animated background bitmaps.
bitmap must be a 320-by-400 image. You can
select a bitmap on the Static bitmap page
and let LogoMania tile or chop it to fit the
required size, or you can resize the image
yourself using Windows Paint. Use the
StretchySkew option from the Image menu
in Windows Paint to get the image close to
640-by-400, then set the Image Attributes
to 640-by-400. Now use Stretch/Skew one
final time to reduce the bitmap’s width by
50 percent.
The animated logo bitmap generated by
LogoMania can have at most 256 different
colors, so the total number of colors used by
the animation and static bitmaps can’t exceed
256. If the static bitmap uses too many colors,
LogoMania will enable the Fewer Colors but-
ton. The edit box next to the button controls
how many colors will be used; its maximum is
256 minus the number of colors in the anima-
tion bitmap. If the color-reduced image is
muddy or indistinct, consider using an anima-
tion bitmap with fewer colors.
Shades smoothly from color
1 to color 2.
Shades from color 1 to
color 2 and back to
color 1.
Shades from color 1 to
color 2 and then to
color 3.
Shades from color 1 to
color 2 to color 3 and
back to color 1.
FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND
The animation bitmap page and the static
bitmap page both have check boxes labeled
Foreground. Checking one of these auto-
matically unchecks the other. When Logo-
Mania merges the two bitmaps, it looks at
Copyrighted material
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PC TECH
Utilities
TYPE
PalSortType » record
Orgindex. Newindex ; Byte;
pstRed. pstGreen, pstBlue : Byte:
Pixels : Integer;
end:
VAR PalSort : ARRAY[0. .255] OF PalSortType:
procedure ReduceColors;
VAR
X. CloseX, OneDist, ClosestDtst : Integer;
Swaptemp : PalSortType:
function DistFrom(A, B : PalSortType) : Integer:
begin
Result Abs(A. pstRed * B. pstRed) ■«-
Abs(A. pstGreen - B. pstGreen) + AbsCA. pstBlue -
B. pstBlue):
end:
begin
WHILE SlotsUsed > SlotMax DO
begin
ClosestDist := 3*255:
CloseX :« SlotsUsed-1:
// slots are in order of prevalence; from
// SlotsUsed
// to 255 they are all zero. Search downward
// seeking
U closest color match.
FOR X := SlotsUsed-2 DOWNTO 0 DO
begin
OneDist := D1 stFromIPal Sort[51 otsUsed- 1] ,
PalSortCX]):
IF OneDist < ClosestDist THEN
begin
ClosestDist OneDist:
CloseX := X;
end;
end:
// add the last item's pixel *count to the closest
// one
Inc( Pa lSort[CloseX]. Pixels, Pal Sort[Sl otsUsed-
11. Pixels);
// zero out the last item's p1xel*count
PalSort[SlotsUsed-l]. Pixels :» 0;
// set the last item to be replaced by the
// closest
PalSortCSlotsUsed-1]. Newindex :*
Pal Sorted oseX] .Orgindex:
// the closest item now has more pixels; to
// maintain the
// sorted order it may need to move lower In the
// list
X := CloseX-1;
WHILE (X > 0) AND
(PalSortCX]. Pixels < PalSortCCloseX]. Pixels) DO
Dec(X):
Inc(X):
IF PalSortCX]. Pixels < PalSortCCloseX], Pixels
THEN
begin
SwapTemp := PalSortCCloseX];
PalSortCCloseX] PalSortCX];
PalSortCX] ;= SwapTemp;
end:
// some of the now-unused colors may have their
// new index
// set to the color we Just replaced: change them
// to point
// to the color by which it was replaced
FOR X := SlotsUsed TO 255 DO
IF PalSortCX]. Newindex = PalSortCSlotsUsed-
1]. Orgindex THEN
PalSortCX] .Newindex ;«
PalSortCCloseX] .Orgindex;
Dec(SlotsUsed) :
end:
end;
FIQttlE 4: In order to reduce the number of colors a bitmap uses, LogoMania 's ReduceColors procedure uses the PalSort array to find the least
used colors and merge them with the in-use colors that are closest to them.
the pixel in the bottom-left corner of the
foreground bitmap and treats all pixels of
that color as transparent. Each pixel in the
final image is copied from the corresponding
pixel in either the foreground or back-
ground bitmap. If the foreground pixel
matches the transparent color, the back-
ground pixel is copied; if not. the foreground
pixel is copied.
In Figure 1. the static bitmap of the PC
Magazine logo consists of white letters in
a red rectangle, centered on a white field.
Since the bottom-left pixel of the foreground
bitmap is white, all white pixels are treated
as transparent, allowing the animated back-
ground to show through around and within
the logo.
The Foreground check box serves a pur-
pose even when you are not using a static
bitmap. When not checked, all colors in the
358 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. IW
image will be animated. When checked, the
transparent color will not be animated. If
you've centered a bitmap on a single-color
background, you'll want to check the Fore-
ground box. Otherwise, the background will
flash wildly as the bitmap animates.
CREATING THE ANIMATED LOGO
Once you have selected an animation and
(optionally) a static bitmap, flip to the Logo
bitmap page, click the Create button, and save
the animated logo bitmap. If the resulting
reduced-size thumbnail view looks totally
wrong, you may have put the wrong bitmap in
the foreground: toggle the value of the Fore-
ground check box on either the Animation
bitmap page or the Static bitmap page and
click (Create again.
If the Create button is not enabled, it
means something is wrong with at least one of
your bitmap selections. The possibilities are:
• No animation bitmap has been selected.
• The animation bitmap is not 320-by-400.
• The animation bitmap is 320-by-400. but the
static bitmap is not.
• Both the animation bitmap and the static
bitmap are 320-by-4(X), but the total number
of colors used by the two is greater than 256.
Correct the problem and try again.
As long as your system is running in
256-color mode, the Preview button will be
enabled any time an animated logo bit-
map has been created or loaded. Click this
button for a preview of the logo being ani-
mated the same way that Windows 95 will
animate it at start-up. If your system's dis-
play adapter and drivers support changing
video resolution on the fly, the Preview at
640x400 check box will be enabled. Check-
ing this box before pressing Preview causes
Cf
PC TECH
Utilities
LogoMania to display the logo animation
at MO-by-400 resolution, giving a very ac-
curate preview.
ACTIVATING THE ANIMATED LOGO
If the file LOGO.SYS is present in the root di-
rectory of the boot drive, Windows 95 loads it
as the animated logo bitmap. To install your
own animated logo, copy it to the root direc-
tory of the boot drive. Then rename LOGO
.SYS (if present) to LOGO.OLD, and rename
your new logo to LOGO.SYS. Note that the
two screens that Windows 95 displays at shut-
down are also 320-by-4(X) bitmaps. The one
that asks you to wait while Windows 95 shuts
down is LOGOW.SYS: the one that informs
you that it s safe to shut the computer off is
LOGOS.SYS. Both reside in the Windows 95
directory. You can use any bitmap that has
been sized by LogoMania in place of either of
the supplied shutdown bitmaps.
Tve described the basics of using Logo-
Mania, but a few minutes spent working
through the tutorials in the help system will be
worth your while. LogoMania isn’t difficult to
use, but its features go deeper than might be
apparent at first. Remember that you can get
help for each page of the main form and for
each helper form by pressing FI. Also, to get
help for an individual component, you can
click on the help icon on the title bar and then
click on the component.
PROGRAMMING LOGOMANIA
LogoMania deals mainly with bitmaps and
palettes, but it doesn’t make any serious use of
the Delphi TBitmap object or of the bitmap-
handling facilities supplied by Windows. The
problem is that Windows attempts to share
the palette fairly among all open windows,
while LogoMania needs total control of the
palette. It gets this control by manipulating
the bitmaps as data files without translating
them into on-screen images. The only major
feature that does use the Windows palette sys-
tem is the palette animation in preview mode.
In the section below. I’ll discuss these high
points of LogoMania's programming:
• reading and writing bitmaps by working
directly with bitmap files;
• reducing the number of colors in a bitmap’s
palette; and
• creating bitmap files from mathematical
formulas.
THE BITMAP FILE STRUCTURE
Every 256-color Windows bitmap file consists
of the same four parts: a bitmap file header
(TBitmapFileHeader in Delphi), a bitmap
info header (TBitmapInfoHeader in Delphi),
a table of colors defining the palette used by
the bitmap, and the actual bitmap data, which
is stored as rows of pixels starting with the
bottom line.
In the TBitmapInfoHeader, the biWidth
and biHeight fields define the size of the
bitmap in pixels, and the biPlanes and biBit-
Count fields indicate the number of bits per
pixel. In a 256-color bitmap, biPlanes is always
1 and biBitCount is 8. The biClrUsed field
tells how many colors the palette uses, with 0
signifying the full complement of 256. Last is
the biCIrImportant field, which is normally
used only by the Windows palette manager.
Windows 95 color-shifts only a portion of
the palette. That’s how it’s able to display
some parts of the logo as static and some parts
as animated. In an animated logo bitmap, the
biCIrImportant field represents the index of
the first animation palette entry. Windows 95
LogoMania isn’t
difficult to use,
but its features go
deeper than might be
apparent at first.
will cycle the colors from that entry to entry
number 255. If you try to edit the Windows 95
default LOGO.SYS using Windows Paint,
you’ll find that it no longer animates after you
save it. Why? Because Paint has set the bi-
Qrlmportant field toO.
THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
The mythical giant Procrustes had a bed
that was always the right size: If his guests
were too short, he stretched them to fit; if
they were too tall, he cut off the extra bits.
LogoMania takes a similar approach in pro-
ducing a bitmap. First it builds a TBitmap-
FileHeader and TBitmapInfoHeader that
describe a 256-color, 320-by-400 bitmap. Logo-
Mania copies the palette from the original
bitmap, expands it to 256 colors if necessary,
then determines whether to adjust the bit-
map’s aspect ratio by doubling the height or
halving the width. Remember, at display
time Windows 95 stretches the bitmap to
twice its actual width. If the bitmap is small-
er than 320-by-200, LogoMania doubles the
height; otherwise, it halves the width.
After writing the header data to the output
file, LogoMania builds the output image one
row of pixels at a time. The program repeat-
edly reads a line of pixels from the input file,
builds an output line, and writes it to the out-
put file. If LogoMania is halving the image's
width, it skips every other pixel in the input
file; if doubling the image’s height, it writes
each row of pixels twice. An input line longer
than 320 pixels is truncated to 320 pixels. If
shorter, the input line is repeated until 320 pix-
els have been filled. In the same way, if there
are more than 200 rows of pixels in the input
file, rows after the two hundredth one are ig-
nored. If there are fewer, the lines are repeated
to make 200 rows. Because the first row of
pixel data in the file represents the last row in
the image, LogoMania reads and writes the
rows of pixel data starting from the last row
in the file and working back toward the first.
When the bitmap is smaller than 640-by-
400, LogoMania will optionally center it
rather than tiling or truncating it. This is a sim-
ilar process, again beginning >vith the creation
of a bitmap file header, bitmap info header,
and palette for the output file. LogoMania
writes as many blank lines as necessary to cen-
ter the image vertically, then centers each line
of pixels horizontally.
COLOR REDUCTION
Naturally, a 256-color bitmap can’t use more
than 256 colors. If the total number of palette
entries used by pixels in the animation bit-
map and the static bitmap is greater than 256,
LogoMania offers to reduce the number of
colors in the static bitmap. Frequently, this is
accomplished with no apparent loss of image
quality. The greater the reduction, however,
the greater the chance that the resulting
image will be fuzzy or unclear. I’ll describe the
technique here and show part of its source
code; for the full source code, see the Save-
WithReducedColors method in the Logo-
manu.pas unit.
LogoMania starts the color-reduction pro-
cess by locating and combining any palette
entries that define the same RGB color. After
that, it attempts to minimize the impact of
its color reduction by always changing the
color that's used by the fewest pixels. It
changes all pixels using the just-removed
color to the color in use that comes closest
to matching it.
Rather than search all 128,000 pixels for
those affected by each palette color change,
LogoMania builds a translation table that
maps palette entries from the original bitmap
to the reduced-color bitmap. It uses an array
called PalSort, containing 256 user-defined
PalSortType structures (see Figure 4), each of
which stores the red, green, and blue color
components of the corresponding entry in the
original bitmap’s palette, along with the num-
ber of pixels that use that entry. (The pixel
count is already available, because Logo-
Mania had to take a pixel census in order to
determine how many different colors are
used.) PalSortType also includes the fields
Orgindex (the palette index from the original
bitmap) and Newindex (the palette index to
be used in the new bitmap); Newindex is ini-
tially the same as Orgindex.
If any two items in the PalSort array have
the same color values, LogoMania combines
them. The program sets the pixel count of
MARCH 25 . 1997 PC MAGAZINE 359
PC TECH
Utilities
one of them (call it A) to the sum of the
pixel counts of both, then sets the pixel
count of the other item (call it B) to 0, and
the Newindex field to the Orgindex of item
A. Next. LogoMania sorts the array in de-
scending order by the number of pixels used
by each entry. The transparent color, if there
is one. gets special treatment. It is put in the
second palette entry, regardless of the num-
ber of pixels used.
Figure 4 shows the ReduceColors func-
tion. in which LogoMania repeatedly takes
the least used entry, locates the in-use entry
closest to it, and merges the two. That is.
LogoMania assigns the total pixel count of
both entries to the closest-match entry, sets
the pixel count of the least used entry to 0,
and sets the Newindex of the least used entry
to the Orgindex of the closest-match entry.
The closest-match entry now has a larger
pixel count than it did before, so the Reduce-
Colors function moves it to a new position in
the sorted array, if necessary. It continues
until the number of colors has been reduced
as much as necessary.
To create the translation table. Logo-
Mania sorts the array on the Orgindex field
(the palette index in the original bitmap),
restoring the original order. The program
builds the translation table from the New-
index field of each entry, and it writes the
new file's bitmap file header, bitmap info
header, and palette. Then it copies each line
of pixel data from the old file to the new. re-
placing each pixel with the corresponding
value from the translation table. The result
is a new bitmap that is very much like the old
but uses fewer colors.
CREATING THE LOGO BITMAP
The Create button on the Logo bitmap
page is not enabled unless you have chosen
a 320-by-4(X) animation bitmap and either
no static bitmap or a 32()-by-400 static bit-
map with the correct number of colors. These
constraints make it fairly easy for Logo-
Mania to create an animated logo bitmap. It
starts by building a palette from the palettes
of the two input bitmaps. It copies palette
entries from the static bitmap to the new
palette, starting from entry 0 and working
upward, copying only entries that are used
by at least one pixel. In the same way, Logo-
Mania copies the animation bitmap s in-use
palette entries to the new palette, starting
from entry 255 and working down. The next
step is to write a bitmap file header and bit-
map info header, as usual, with the biClr-
Important field of the bitmap info header
set to the index of the first palette entry
taken from the animation bitmap.
To create the bitmap data portion of the an-
imated logo bitmap, LogoMania repeatedly
reads a line of pixels from the animation
bitmap and the static bitmap. It copies pixels
from one or the other of these lines using this
rule: If the foreground bitmap’s pixel matches
the transparent color, copy the background
bitmap’s pixel; if not. copy the foreground
bitmap's pixel.
Creating an animated logo bitmap from an
animation bitmap alone (without a static
bitmap) is even easier. No merging of pixel in-
formation is required. The only difference
is that if the animation bitmap's Foreground
box is checked. LogoMania places the trans-
parent color in the non-animated portion of
the palette. If not, it leaves all of the animation
bitmap's colors in the animated portion.
GENERATING ANIMATED BITMAPS
LogoMania's Animated Background Gener-
ator can produce thousands of different ani-
mated backgrounds based on simple mathe-
matical formulas. To create the illusion of
animation, it builds the gradient-fill palette by
setting from two to four fixed palette entries
and then interpolating RGB values between
them. LogoMania writes the bitmap headers
and palette as usual and then calculates the
color to be used for each pixel.
The ColorFunc function determines the
color of each pixel using the selected shape
formula and other options that are passed to
it as parameters. The vRow and vCoI para-
meters represent the pixels' location, and the
vGenT parameter defines which of the 20 for-
mulas should be used. The visin parameter is
True if the animation direction is In/Left/
Down and False if it’s Out/Right/Up, vColors
is the number of colors to be used, and vWid
represents line width (in most cases).
Let's look at a simple example, the formula
for diagonal stripes:
Result := ( ( < vCol *2+vRow) OIV vWid)
MOO vColors) ;
This formula produces a series of diagonal
stripes that cycle through all available colors;
their width is controlled by the vWid para-
meter. All the formulas are similar to this one.
They perform some calculation involving the
pixel row and column, taking into account the
fact that Windows 95 will double the bitmap's
width. Most of them divide the result by vWid
to control width in some way, and then they
use the MOD operator to force the result into
the range from 0 to vColors-1. If you have
Delphi, you can modify the source code to
add formulas of your own.
I started programming LogoMania with
the idea that I would use Delphi's handy sup-
port for reading and displaying bitmaps.
After some experimentation. I discovered
I needed more control, which forced me to
manipulate the bitmaps as data files, not as
images. It was an interesting evolution, and
the results speak for themselves. □
Neil J. Rubenking is contributing technical
editor of PC Magazine.
GEHING THE FILES
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making copies or using any portion for any commercial purpose is strictly prohibited.
360 PC MACiAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Cc
PC Solutions
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES TO INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY
User-to-User
ByNeilJ.Rubenking
Restoring DOS After
Upgrading to Win 95
M ost solutions for setting up dual-booting
between Windows 95 and DOS assume
you retained your old DOS when in-
stalling Windows 95. If you removed DOS
when installing Windows 95 or if your system
never had DOS installed to begin with, you can
still set up dual-booting, though the process is
tedious. Once dual-booting is working, you can
even install Windows 3.x after booting under
DOS. Of course, you must specify a location for
Windows 3.x other than the Windows 95 folder,
and if Windows Setup ever needs to restart the
machine, you ‘d have to be sure to boot DOS
at each restart. The two Windows setups are
completely independent of each other. To run
Windows 3.1x, you just boot under DOS first.
The following procedure lets you add a min-
imal dual-boot configuration. To start, you
must have a DOS 5. x or better boot disk in the
A: drive. Open a DOS window and enter
C:
CD \
MD OLO_DOS
COPY A:\I0.SYS 10. DOS
COPY A:\MSD0S.SYS MSDOS.DOS
COPY A:\C0MMAND.C0M COMMAND. DOS
COPY COMMAND. DOS 0LD_D0S\C0MMAND.C0M
Now open a text editor, such as MS-DOS EDIT
or Notepad, and create a file named C.\CON-
FIG.DOS containing the single line
SHELL-C:\0LD_00S\C0MHAND.C0M
C:\0LD_00S /P
Then create a file named C\A UTOEXEC DOS
with these three lines:
®ECH0 OFF
PATH C:\0LD_D0S
PROMPT $P$G
Make a backup copy of C:\MSDOS.SYS,
which shoidd already exist. (You may first have
to use either ATTRIB or Explorer to clear the
Hidden/System/Read-Only attributes.) Then
edit the / Options} section of the file, adding the
line “BootMulti^l. ” If a line exists that reads
“BootKeys-0, ” change that to "BootKeys^I. ”
You should now be able to boot to DOS by
restarting your machine and pressing F4 when
the Starting Windows 95 message appears. Of
course, this will be a bare-bones configuration;
the only commands available are those internal
to COMMAND.COM. When you want to start
Windows, reboot without pressing F4.
Expanding your DOS configuration is the
tedious part. You can install all the executables
and so forth from the DOS distribution disks to
the C:\OLD_DOS directory and then modify
CONFIG. DOS and A UTOEXEC. DOS as appro-
priate to add any device drivers and TSRs you
want to use under DOS. If you choose to edit
these files under old DOS, use their regular
names. CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT,
and do not touch any files with the extension
.W40. You must not run DOS's SETUP program
or use the SYS command, or you risk blowing
away Windows 95 's start-up files.
The basics of this procedure ( where to copy
the old DOS system files and what to name them)
is outlined in the Windows Resource Kit. It even
covers other DOS versions (such as PC-DOS) that
may use different names for system files. The
only limiting factor appears to be that your old
DOS version must be new enough for it not
to care about the physical location of the DOS
kernel (MSDOS.SYS, IBMDOS.COM, and soon).
For MS-DOS, this means Version 5.0 or later.
Greg Wolking
via ZD Net
PC MAQAZiNE: If you installed Windows 95
over your old DOS and Windows, you can
also regain the ability to dual-boot into DOS
by following these steps: Install your old DOS
using its SETUP disk (this will destroy your
ability to boot into Windows 95). Now. install
Windows 3.1. Finally, reinstall Windows 95.
making sure to avoid replacing your old DOS
and Windows this time.
Although this procedure seems simpler,
reinstalling Windows 95 is immensely time-
consuming. Not only that, parts of the specific
Windows 95 setup you've developed by install-
ing your favorite programs may be overwritten
by the reinstallation. Thus, the process de-
scribed above may actuaUy be a ^tter alter-
native. It may take a number of fiddly little
steps, but your existing Windows 95 installa-
tion will remain intact.
HIGHLIGHTS
0 HARDWARE The Windows 95
start-up disk is certainly useful,
but it may not be able to do all
that you think it can. Page 370.
SPREADSHEETS Corel Office is
not as well integrated as it might
be: We look at incompatible
date values between WordPerfect and
Quattro Pro. Page 382.
^ DATABASES a couple of tools that
make it easier to manipulate the
data in your Microsoft Access
database. Page 382.
OUR ADVISORS
Dou^as Boling is a contributing editor and
the author of many PC Magazine utilities.
Frank J. Derfler, Jr., is senior networking
editor and the author of the PC Magazine
Guide to Connectivity.
Alfred Poor is a contributing editor and
the author of The Underground Guide to
Hardware.
Brian Profflt is a contributing editor of
Computing Today and the author of
OS/2 Warp Survival Kit.
JeffProsise is a contributing editor and the
author of DOS 6 Techniques & Utilities.
SalRicclardi is a contributing editor
and the author of the Running FoxPro
series from Microsoft Press.
Nell J. Rubenkingu technical editor and the au-
thor of De\ph\ Programming Problem Solver.
Luisa Simone is a contributing editor and
the author of Microsoft Publisher by Desiga
Cra^ Stinson is a contributing editor
and the coauthor of Running Windows 3. 1
and Running Microsoft Excel
M. David Stone is a contributing editor
and the coauthor of Word for Windows
Companion, Second Edition.
PC Direct starts here
with exciting offers from
top direct vendors.
See index, page 370.
I
1
1
. '
1
1
• A
. 1
1 1
l_l
m
1 — 1
1 1
• j
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 361
COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE
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office 97 Professional
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Microsoft Excel VS.O WIN comp upg 114.91
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Microsoft MS-DOS V6.22 upg 49.96
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UMAX PowerLook 11 scanner
VIsioneer PaperPort Vx scanner
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Wacom ArtPad 4x5 graphica tabtel...
Wacom ArtZ II 6x6 graphics tablet....
...1965.00
277.21
260.92
139.96
299.45
EZFIyer 230MB SCSI external ...
EZFIysr 230MB external
EZFIyer 230MB cartridge
SyJel 1.5GB SCSI inlemal
SyJet 1.5GB SCSI axtemai
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...289.47
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29.32
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499.00
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ADS Cadet AM/FM stereo data receiver
ADS Elite Pro w/remote mouse
AOS TV Superscan 2 PC to TV converter
MIcroeokitions 4X CD paraM
MicrosoMione 8X CD parallel
NEC 6Xi 6X CO inlemal
NEC 6X1 8X CO miemal SCSI-2 -
NEC exe ax CO external SCSI-2
Panasonic 10X 5-CO changer mternal
Panasonic portable 8X CO w/wkrs
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SunMowSlar 8X CD inlemal lOE/ATAPI
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Yamaha YST-MIS 10-watl speakers
Yamaha 45-watt salellila/subwooler
.66.15
96.62
289.22
.319.67
.389.01
239.62
264.79
339.90
.249.00
.390.00
.299-00
.299.52
.13524
.299.66
69.63
.169.94
Mag Innovision 410V2 14’ ,28mm 229.33
Mag Innovision 510V2 15' .28mm 309.75
Mag innovision 710V2 17* .28mm 609.91
Mag Irmovtsion DJ702e 1 T .28mm 599.29
Magnavox CM2066 14’ .28mm 229.M
Magnavox CM2090 14’ .26mm 249.94
Magnavox MVS011 15’ 2Smm 304.15
Magnavox MB5314 15’ .28mm 369.37
Magnavox I07B 17* .28mm 599.01
Magnavox 20CM64 20* .3tmm 949.00
Magnavox CM5600 20* .27mm 1079.06
NEC M500 15* 25mm 375.29
NEC XV15+ 15' -28mm 394.90
NEC XV17+ 17' 28mm 9M.16
NEC M700 ir 25mm 779.12
NECP750 17*,25mir 179.79
NEC P1150 21* .2Smm 2019.47
Princeton E050 15* .26mm 309.98
Princeton E070 ^T .28mm 517.21
Sony Muttiscan lOOax 15* PnP .25mm 379.41
Sony MiStiscan lOOsi IS* PnP 25mm 449.49
Sony Muftiscan 200s1 ir ,2Smm 769.09
Sony Muttiscan 17sell 17* PnP .25mm 929.76
Sony Multiscan 300sl 20* PnP JXknm.... 1565.46
Sony Multiscan 20M 20* 2Smm 1769.42
ViewSonic 15GSII1 15’ .27mm 3M.11
ViewSonic 17GS 17* 57mm 919.07
ViewSonic G810 21* .25rrwn 1396.09
ViewSonic P810 21* 25mm 1469.32
VlevrSomc PT810 21* 50mm 1579.56
ViewSonic P615 21* 5Smm ......1639.92
...41.03
.67 99
.329.95
.529.93
.95,04
Alps OkdeP^ Wavs keyboard/touchpad .96.97
Alps QlidePoint Windows 95 keyboard 9659
Calcomp Drawing State Il6x9w/preaspen.199.96
nai12wi|xBaapen.,. 259.24
Adeaso NU-Form keytxiard
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AGFA ePhoto 307 digital camera....
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Casio QV-100 digitst camera
Cask) OV-300 duftal camera
Connectix OuickCam
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Epson PhotoPC 500 digW camera
Epson AclionScanning Systtm II
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Hswien Packard ScanJet 4t
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Intel Smart Video Recorder III
Kodak Snapshot Photo Scanner 1
Kensington Mousa-lr
Logitech MoussA
Logitech Cordless MouseMan 96
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Logitech TrsckMan Marble
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Microtek ScanMakar E6 std color flatbed .499.00
596.90
959-20
97.13
224.64
..399 00
...499.00
376.41
...949.57
...199.41
399 00
.957.90
...169.16
...199.00
26.26
91 ,n
...199.00
499.00
.999.00
55.51
51.22
94.59
93.57
306.30
97.99
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ATI Video Xprsssian^ PCI 2MB 09.30
ATI TV Tuner 101.42
ATI 3D Xpression* PC2TV 2MB PCI 149.52
ATI 3D Xpression*^ PC2TV 4MB PCI 17954
ATI 3D Pro Turbo PC2TV 4MB PCI 229.69
Diamond SpeedStar64 2200 2MB ISA 9252
Diamond Stealth 3D 2000XL 4MB PCI 17959
Diamond Stealth 3D 3000XL 2MB PCI 215.63
Diamond Stealth 3D 3000XL 4MB PCI 2M50
Matrox Mystique PCI 2M8 WRAM 13651
Matrox Milimnium PCI 2MB WRAM -.179.31
Matrox Miltennium PCI 4MB WRAM 249.15
Truevision Bravado 1000 PCI 629.12
Truevision Taroa 1000 PCI 1537.15
Tnievision Targa 2000 PCI XI6957
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Nikon AX-tlOScantouch scarvwr....
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Polaroid 2000/40 digital camera
Ricoh ROC-2 digitat camera
Ricoh ROC-1 digital camera
...729.55
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779.41
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709.00
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OverDrive Pentium Proeeeeora
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196.04
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249.46
319.20
3Com LAN PC Card-TP 1O0T
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3Com 33-6 10BT LAN+modem
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Simple Ethernet 10 BAsE-T
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Slm^ daia/PC Card hard drive
Xircom 33.6
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m.31
206.42
1M50
529.99
229.96
258.97
229.09
2N.99
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57.30
12.99
159.92
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309.51
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4704 V133 16MB 1 6GB 6X CO
6704 VIM 24MB 2 90B 6X CO
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4764 VIM MMX 24MB 2.506 16X CO ..
4716 V200 32MB 2 SOB 6X CO
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2130 44
3671 22
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IBM
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365X V120 8MB 810MB 10.4* acliva 1897.80
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366X0 VI 20 8MB 1 OeOB 10.4* wave 4X CO .2966 00
30SX VI 33 6MB 106GB 113* dual 1067 07
366X0 V133 8M8 1 3SGB 1 1 3T acttvs 6X CO 2909 40
560 VI 00 9MB 610MB ll.r dual 2747 39
560 V120 SMB 610MB 12.1* acttva 3749 94
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4230 5^ 33 8MB 1.06G8 10.4* acttva 6X 00.2969.00
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e000HV133 16MB 13SGB 121* acttva 6X CO. 3799.00
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Ask Our Advisors
Ask Our Advisors
HARDWARE
Disk Disaster
B When you create a Windows 95 start-
up disk, the program prompts imply
the disk will let you recover from a
hard disk failure. The disk created on my sys-
tem, however, does not load the necessary
drivers to access my CD-ROM or Zip drives in
the event that my hard disk fails, so I can 't get at
my backups or my Windows 95 CD-ROM in
order to reinstall the software. Do I misunder-
stand the purpose of the start-up disk? Can you
tell me how to figure out which files 1 need on a
boot disk so / can access my Win 95 CD?
Peter Alexander
via the Internet
PC MAfiAZINE: You make an excellent point.
The Windows 95 start-up disk is handy, but it
only works if your hard disk is still working
well enough for you to access files on it. This is
fine if your problem is that something has
gone wrong with the boot files or that the con-
figuration has become damaged to the point
where Windows won’t load, but the start-up
disk does not provide sufficient protection in
the event of a major meltdown. Fortunately,
you can add a few files to compensate for this
shortcoming.
First, let’s look at what the start-up disk
does include. It has Command.com and the
hidden system files required to make the disk
bootable. It also includes the standard disk
utilities you’d need to make a hard disk
bootable: Fdisk, Format, and Sys. You also get
Scandisk and Chkdsk to check the condition
of the file system, and Edit and RegEdit to
alter configuration files and the Registry. Fi-
nally, you get Attrib, Drvspace.bin, Debug,
and Uninstal for good measure.
What you don’t get are Autoexec.bat and
Config.sys files, or any of the real-mode driv-
ers some of your computer’s devices, such as
CD-ROM drives, may require.
If you have upgraded this system from
older versions of DOS and Windows, or if you
have set up your DOS-mode configuration
files, you may be able to add the required files
easily. Look for Autoexec.dos and Config.dc»
in the root directory of your boot drive. Copy
these as Autoexec.bat and Config.s>^ to your
start-up disk and edit them to remove hard
disk paths from the system and driver files ref-
erenced. Then, for each of the lines you
changed, copy the referenced files from the
hard disk to the start-up disk.
If you don’t have the DOS-mode configura-
tion files, you’ll need to create them from
scratch. To access your CD-ROM drive, you
will have to add at least two lines: a reference
to the disk’s driver in Config.sys, and a corre-
sponding line calling Mscdex.exe in your
Autoexec.bat file. You can create these if you
have the appropriate documentation, but
there’s an easier way.
Shut down Windows 95, but choose the
Restart in MS-DOS Mode option. When you
get to the DOS prompt, make backup copies
of your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files,
then run the DOS installation procedure for
your CD-ROM drive. This will copy the re-
quired driver to your hard disk from the CD
drive’s software disk. Windows 95 includes a
copy of Mscdex.exe, which you should find
in the Windows\Command folder. The in-
stallation process will make the changes to
the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files that
you’ll need for your start-up disk; all you
need to do is copy the two initialization files
plus the driver and Mscdex.exe files to the
floppy disk and edit the file references in
Autoexec.bat and Config.sys, and you’ll be
370 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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MONDAY-FRIDAY 7:S0AM • 8:00PM CST SATURDAY 10:OOAM-3:OOPM CST
Copyrighted material
SOLUTIONS
Ask Our Advisors
all set. Remember to restore the original ver-
sions of the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys
files from your backup copies before you
restart your computer.
Now comes the most important step. Re-
boot the system with the start-up disk in the
drive. If your system's CMOS is set to try bool-
ing from C: first, you may have to temporarily
change the settings so that the system boots
first from the A: drive. Once the system is up
and running, make sure the CD-ROM drive
and any other essential devices are working
correctly. The time to fix any mistakes in your
start-up disk's configuration is now. while the
hard disk is still functioning correctly.
This same technique can be used for any
devices, such as removable disk drives or
sound cards, that require real-mode drivers in
order to work in DOS mode. — Alfred Poor
OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS
Deleting OS/2
Networking Files to
Save Space
In order to install OS/2’s Web Explorer
and other Internet applications, I had
to install networking when I installed
OS/2 4.0. But I access the Internet only through
a dial-up connection. I know there are a lot of
networking files on my disk that I don 't need.
Which files can I safely remove, and how much
space will I save?
Stephen Caspar
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PC MAGAZINE: Since the target audience of
OS/2’s Web Explorer was enterprise clients,
IBM didn't consider the possibility of users
accessing the Internet via dial-up. To get
TCP/IP with OS/2 4.0, you have to install net-
working protocol and transport services. (If
you try to install TCP/IP support by running
the install program in the TCPIP suMirectory
of the CD-ROM, that doesn't set up the desk-
top properly. It^ easiest to go ahead and in-
stall the network support.) You’re correct
that people who don't use a network end up
with a fair amount of wasted disk space. For-
tunately, it’s all in the same area, so it's fairly
easy to remove.
Open an OS/2 command prompt and switch
to the OS/2 boot drive. The first set of files to
remove is everything but NULLNDIS.OS2 in
the \IBMCOM\MACS directory:
CD \I8MC0M\MACS
MD TEMP
MOVE NULLNDIS.0S2 .\TEMP
DEL *
MOVE TEMP\NULLNDIS.0S2 .
RO TEMP
You have recovered 3,171,263 bytes already!
Next, you can remove the DLL and PROTO-
COL directories and recover another 1 ,501 .747.
CD \IBMC0M
DEL DLL
RD DLL
DEL PROTOCOL
RD PROTOCOL
You can also delete several files in the IBM-
COM directory and pick up some more savings.
DEL *.EXE
DEL *.HLP
Deleting these files frees an additional
458,400 bytes. You’ve now retrieved over 5MB
of wasted space on the hard disk. Next, you
can clean up some wasted memory. Some of
those LAN device drivers are loaded into
memory at boot time, even though you never
use them. Open the CONFIG.SYS file with
your favorite text editor. Go to the LIBPATH
line and remove the reference to \IBM-
COM\DLL. In the PATH line, remove the ref-
erence to \lBMCOM. And there are several
other lines you can either remove completely
or inactivate by adding REM at the beginning:
DEVICE=I:\IBMC0M\LANMSGDD.0S2
/I:I:\IBMC0M /S
CALL=I: \IBMC0M\PR0T0C0L\NETBIND.EXE
RUN=I: \IBMCOM\LANMSGEX.EXE
DEVICE=I:\HPTN\PR0T0C0L\AF0S2.SYS
DEVICE=I:\MPTN\PR0T0C0L\IFNDIS.SYS
CALL=I:\0S2\CMD.EXE /Q /C
H:\MPTN\BIN\MPTSTART.CMD >NUL
DEVICE=I:\IBMC0M\MACS\NULLNDIS.052
RUN=I: \TCPIP\BINWDOSCTL.EXE
You can also remove the files referenced in
those lines for a bit more savings. You could
remove the *.MSG files in \IBMCOM too — if
you’re sure you’ll never have an error mes-
sage — but it’s safest to slop at this point.
— Brian Proffit
WORD PROCESSING
Getting the Indents
YouWdntinWord
In your July 1996 issue, you discussed
paragraph numbering in Microsoft
Word 7.0, but you didn’t cover the
problem we’re currently having. The format
we prefer indents the first line of a paragraph to
indicate level but keeps all the other lines flush
left. For example:
1. This first-level paragraph should
have only the first line indented.
A. This second-level paragraph
should have the first line indented further, but
later lines not indented.
i. This third-level para-
graph should have the first line indented still
further, but later lines not indented.
In WordPerfect, we could easily create this
structure, move paragraphs, and increase and
decrease the level for a paragraph. WordPer-
fect would renumber the paragraphs and ad-
just the indents as needed. We have not been
able to accomplish this in Word. When we try
numbering paragraphs — using either the For-
mat I Bullets and Numbering command or the
Format I Heading Numbering command —
Word insists on indenting each level farther
than the level before. For e.xample:
I. First Level. This first-level paragraph
indents only the first line.
A. Second Level. This second-level
paragraph indents the entire paragraph.
Does Word have any way to number para-
graphs using the kind of indenting we need?
John Smith
via the Internet
PC MAGAZINE: Although you can get the result
you want fairly easily, the approach isn’t at all
obvious — particularly for those used to Word-
Perfect. Word s automatic numbering com-
mands are best understood as quick and dirty
shortcuts, with defaults that will work for
most people most of the time. To format para-
graphs differently, you need to define the
heading styles to give you both the number
format and the indents you want. Then you
can assign the appropriate heading style to
each paragraph.
Word gives you several ways to define
styles. The most straightforward for this par-
ticular task is to use the Style dialog box. Start
by choosing Format I Style to open the dialog
box, then set the list box in the lower-left-hand
comer to All Styles. This tells Word to show all
the styles in the Styles box, which isjust above
the list box. Go to the Styles box, highlight
Heading 1, and choose the Modify button to
open the Modify Style dialog box.
Next, choose Format f Numbering to open
the Heading Numbering dialog box. ^ck a for-
mal, and choose Modify if you want to change
it in any way. The Modify Heading Numbering
dialog box is reasonably self-explanatory. To
define the number format for any given level,
scroll through the levels in the Level box to
reach the one you want to change. Change the
settings for that level and move on to the next.
In addition to setting the number format
for each level, make sure you’ve entered the
right setting in the Distance From Indent To
Text box, which defines the space between the
number and the beginning of the text. DonY
worry about the other options in the Number
Position box; you’ll override them in a later
step. But make sure that the Start At text box
shows the number with which you want to
376 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 2.**. 1997
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lOLMTIONS
Ask Our Advisors
start numbering (usually 1); make sure the
Restart Numbering At Each New Section
check box is checked or not, as appropriate.
When you're finished, choose OK to return to
the Modify Style dialog box.
Next, choose Format I Font to specify the
font, style, size, and so on. Then choose For-
mat I Paragraph to define the indents, spacing,
and text flow. In particular, on the Indents And
Spacing card in the Indentation box, you'll want
to make sure that the left and right indents are
defined as 0 inches. You’ll find that the style is
defined as a hanging indent; you'll need to
change this to a first-line indent to match the
formal you need. You’ll probably also want to
adjust the spacing before and after the para-
graph. When you’re done, choose OK to close
the Paragraph dialog box, then OK again to
close the Modify Style dialog box.
Repeat these steps — except for the Format I
Numbering step — for as many heading levels
as you need. You don't need to repeat the For-
mat I Numbering step at lower levels, because
you already defined the number format for all
heading levels when you defined Heading 1.
When you’ve finished, choose OK to close the
Style dialog box and return to your document.
At this point, you can apply the styles and
let Word adjust the numbering and indents
automatically. Note that you have several
choices for applying a heading style. Probably
the easiest is to use Alt-Shift-left arrow or
Alt-Shift-right arrow. If there are no para-
graphs formatted as headings earlier in your
document. Alt-Shift-lefl arrow will format
the paragraph as Heading I and Alt-Shift-
right arrow will format it as Heading 2. If
there are any earlier heading paragraphs. Alt-
Shift-left arrow will formal the paragraph
with the same heading level as the last head-
ing style. All-Shift-right arrow will format the
paragraph as one level lower.
Once a paragraph is formatted with a head-
ing style, Alt-Shift-left arrow will format it as
one level higher. Alt-Shift-right arrow will
format it as one level lower. Alt-Shift-5 (the 5
on the numeric keypad) will format it as Nor-
mal. If you move a paragraph.it will retain its
heading level and automatically change its
number as appropriate. — M. David Stone
SPREADSHEETS
Serial Date Problems
In QuattroPro and
WordPerfect
^ The serial date numbers Quattro Pro
and WordPerfect are not compati-
ble with each other. If you import a
Quattro Pro spreadsheet containing dates into
WordPerfect, the dates will vary by one day.
This appears to be caused by the products ' dif-
382 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
ferent start serial dates. Serial date J is Decern -
ber3J, 1899, in Quattro Pro, and is January J,
1900, in WordPerfect.
Try entering the following into two columns
in Quattro Pro:
12/25/96 Christmas Day
12/26/96 Boxing Day
01/01/97 New Year's Day
DATABASES
Documenting
Microsoft Access
Databases
Import the spreadsheet as a table into Word-
Perfect using Insert I Spreadsheet/Database I
Import and format the first column of the table
as Date. You will note that Christmas now falls
on December 26, Boxing Day on the 27th, and
New Year's Day on the 2nd of January!
Andy Casey
Nepean, Ontario, Canada
PC MAGAZINE: Strange but true. Corel has
taken pains to make Quattro Pro and Word-
Perfect look like the offspring of the same par-
ents. but they are siblings by acquisition, not
birth, and they aren’t as compatible as they
need to be. Serial date values in Quattro Pro
are misinterpreted by WordPerfect whether
you import them or link them (using Insert I
Total Access AiMly/ef Print Documentation (NWIND.TDB)
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FIGURE 1: FMS's$199 Total Access Analyzer can produce reams of
detailed information about your Microsoft Access databases. Over
l.W high-quality reports are available.
Spreadsheet/Database I Create Link). But if
you simply paste in the dates from the Clip-
board, WordPerfect gets them right.
Your dates will also be correct in Word-
Perfect if they originate as text on the Quattro
Pro spreadsheet. For example, suppose Christ-
mas looks like this on the worksheet:
12-25-96
Quattro Pro regards this as a piece of text
rather than as a date, and when you import it
into WordPerfect, the text looks exactly as it
did in Quattro Pro. And now you can assign
the critter the date format in WordPerfect,
and lo, it turns into December 25, 1996.
— Craig Stinson
/ have developed some Microsoft Ac-
Ifly cess databases for use at my office that
have become large and complex. 1
spend a lot of time manually trying to keep the
documentation of the structure of the tables,
querie.%, forms, reports, macros, and modules
current so that 1 know how all the pieces fit to-
gether. 1 do this by keeping the structure in a
Microsoft Word document. Is there an add-on
software package for Access that does this
automatically, or do you have any suggestions
for making this an easier task?
Mel a. St. John
Thousand Oaks, California
PC MAGAZINE: I'm aware of one built-in tool
and one third-party product that can help.
Starting with Version io. Access has included
a database documenter
that you may have over-
looked. To see it in Ac-
cess 2.0, select the File I
Add-Ins I Database Doc-
umentor. In Access 95 or
Access 97, select Tools I
Analyze I Documentor.
This built-in documenta-
tion tool provides an easy
way to view, print, out-
put, or save object-design
characteristics. For ex-
ample. with the Access
97 version, you can pro-
duce a printout that in-
cludes information about
the table, such as table
properties, column defin-
itions, column properties,
table relationships, table
indexes, and user and group permissions.
You can output this information to an Excel
file, a text file, a rich-text-format file or an
.HTML file; you can also send it to a table
in your database. You can produce similarly
voluminous output regarding queries, forms,
reports, macros, modules, and/or the cur-
rent database.
I’ve seen one third-party package that’s
very good. Total Access Analyzer, from Vi-
enna. Virginia-based FMS, goes well beyond
the built-in tools provided by Microsoft. For
example. Total Access not only fully docu-
ments objects, it also detects and reports
many types of errors. It will detect command
buttons that call nonexisting functions, for
instance, and recognize places where you've
Copyrighted material
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Ask Our Advisors
assigned the same hotkey to more than one
control. Total Access also lists unused tables,
queries, and macros.
The product produces over 130 high-qual-
ity customizable reports (see Figure 1 for a
glimpse of some of the options). For exam-
ple. you can create a comprehensive appli-
cation report that details how your applica-
tion works by showing all procedure calls,
macro references, and form and report events
in bracketed, hierarchical fashion. You can
print a relationships report that shows in-
dividual table relationships with property
definitions, or a relationships-window re-
port that looks like Access's own relation-
ships window. A variety of dictionary and
cross-reference reports are available loo.
The program works by analyz-
ing your database, collecting the
results into another database, then
producing reports on the results.
You don’t have to print the reports;
you can view the results directly
without producing hard-copy out-
put. The reports are ordinary Ac-
cess reports — you can even modify
their design — but they’re good
enough that you'll probably have
little need to change them.
If you do a lot of custom pro-
gramming. you’ll appreciate Total
Access’s module reports. You can
specify the font and color of com-
ments and code, and you can gener-
ate procedure indexes and cross-
reference reports. You can also choose
“bracketed” module printouts, with block
constructs clearly indicated and code proper-
ly indented.
Total Access Analyzer is comprehensive
and flexible, and it can produce a lot of
detailed documentation. At $199. it’s not for
casual users, but if you regularly develop
Access databases it's well worth the invest-
ment. As of this writing, only Access 2.0 is
supported. Contact FMS at 888-220-6234 or
www.fmsinc.com for more information.
— Sal Ricciardi
GRAPHICS
Cross-Platform
Compression
pHH / have a small but busy art studio
andconsider myself knowledgeable
r* about computer graphics. I work
with Adobe Photoshop 3.0.5 for Windows.
I've found it best to work with CMYK EPS
( Encapsulated PostScript) files. The format
gives me control over the RGB-to-CMYK con-
version process and lets me do some pretty
interesting stuff with clipping paths and cus-
tom halftone shapes.
3S8 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
My troubles are with fde sizes. A fidl-bleed
.spread or poster-size image at high resolution
(266 or 300 dpi) can be hundreds of mega-
bytes when saved as an .EPS file. Sharing
these files with my Mac-based clients and ser-
vice bureau is a nightmare. In many instances,
the file sizes exceed the capacity of my Sy-
Quest cartridges, and they take forever to
transmit by modem. Is there any way to make
moving these files from a PC to a Mac (and
back again) any easier?
Jack Fetzer
Rochester, New York
PC MAQA2INE: I can suggest a number of differ-
ent solutions to your problem. The straight-
forward approach would be to upgrade from
grcvew I TIFF (I b*t/pKe)|
OK
DCS I Ott |srt^ hie)
£ncodng
73
JPEG Dm guattyl
JPEG (medum quahy)
JPEG (hqhgualtyi
JPEG (maxmum quairty)
P Include Halftone Screen
F Include IrenjferFtncbon
FIGURE 2: Adobe Photoshop gives you three encoding options when
saving an .EPS file.
high-capacity removable media (such as your
SyQuest drive) to really high-capacity remov-
able media, such as the 1GB Iomega Jaz drive.
Unfortunately, this solution would require
your clients and service-bureau contacts to in-
vest in new hardware as well — something that
may not be feasible.
Looking at Photoshop's built-in capa-
bilities, I'd suggest you choose the binary-
encoding option instead of ASCII for your
.EPS files (Figure 2). Found in the Save As
.EPS dialog box, binary encoding will typi-
cally produce a file half the size as an ASCII-
encoded .EPS file. Binary .EPS files store
data as a sequence of 8-bit codes rather than
as a readable list of PostScript commands,
as ASCII is. As long as your service bureau
and your clients are using up-to-date soft-
ware and relatively new printers, binary
.EPS files should not represent any kind of
a problem.
Compatibility problems may sometimes
occur, however, when opening or (especi-
ally) printing binary .EPS files. If that hap-
pens. you're stuck with the much larger
ASCII .EPS files. To reduce file sizes for stor-
age and transmission, try a third-party com-
pression utility. As I'm sure you’ve discov-
ered. no one compression program runs on
both Mac and PCs. But I’ve discovered a
hassle-free workaround.
On your PC, compress the file using the
industry-standard PKZIP utility (or any other
utility that produces a .ZIP file). Though the
exact compression ratio will vary depending
upon the content of the file, photographic
images will average a compression ratio of
2 to 1 . Your Mac-based contacts can decom-
press the file using Aladdin Systems' Stufflt
Deluxe. When returning the file to you, Mac
users can compress it with Stufflt to produce
a .SIT file. PKZIP won't unstuff a .SIT file, but
you can download a free utility called Stuff-
lt Expander for Windows from Aladdin's
Web site, at www.aladdinsys.com. I tried this
system, and it worked perfectly. Stufflt pro-
duced slightly smaller files, and PKZIP was
marginally faster. The important
point is that I was able to transfer
large bitmaps between a PC and a
Mac easily, without any loss in
C«)cel I quality.
One word of warning: Don't
choose the JPEG compression op-
tion when generating your .EPS
files. Although JPEG will produce
the smallest .EPS files (only one-
tenth the size of a comparable
ASCII file), it does so using a lossy
compression method. Each time
you open (decompress) and save
(recompress) a JPEG file, Photo-
shop discards what it judges to be
redundant data. The cumulative
effect of repeated Open/Save oper-
ations can be a noticeably degraded image.
Furthermore, because JPEG compression
discards color data (and preserves luminance
data), most of the degradation would occur
in the one area most important to you —
color fidelity. — Luisa Simone
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SYSTEMS
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IBM Aptrvo Series Models
03. 133MHz h«w'. 16M UM. 1.MI Had Dm. U CD-KW ftUl/lCSI
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NETWDRKING
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21 50MI SGI laragdo 41P, 0ms ocm 512K oda, 7,200 RPM 20MI/sa smiTiM
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NOTEBOOKS
$119.99
.. 199.99
.. 249.99
_ 265,99
... 339 99
...499.99
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1,049.99
.$1,499 99
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Sony PoGoml Computer Models
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MONITORS
Toshibo Notebooks
Soidbli nOG. raitm’lOO, 11 T DSTN, IMI/I10MI UlllG
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1,599.99
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2149.99
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fatapi Ukra 6500. faMua’ 133, 11T Tri, 16MI/1.3H UASKT
falaga Ubro 660(01, faitm' 1 50. 1 1 .T 1R. 1 6MI/1 .361. lOX CD iaamoit ..
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Tata 500(01, fahM*120, 12.1' TTT, 16HI/1.368. 6X COttSiear
lacra S1DCDT. faYtiun'133. 11.rTR, 16MI/2.1GI, lOXCOusiKDT
Taro 730CDT. faatraa’ 150. 12.1’ TR. I6MI/2.0261. 61 CO U73KOI
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2.499.99
1.999.99
2,799.99
3.965.99
5,199.99
1169.99
3,599.99
4 599.99
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Toshibo Re-Monufo(tured Notebooks
Sotah* 110G, fartium* 100, 11.r DSTN, IMI/IIOMI ttllKSI
Saialh 1 lOa, faem' 100, 1 l.r TR, IMI/IIOMI ui ifctl
1,199.99
1,599.99
Seialti fre 4I5G. fartiim' 90. Il.r DSTH, IMI/IIOMI 041101
1,139.99
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Tan SOOG, faiiMi’ 120. 12.1' DSIH, I6MI/1.36I.6X (DUSlirsi
1,529.99
1,799.99
1199.99
1 79999
Taao SOOCOT, fatNam* 120. 12.1’TR, I6MI/1 361. 6X O lASNOni
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2.999.99
1,699.99
krg700a,fanliinM20.1l.rm.l6MI/l.l36IU7NCTI .....
1,929.99
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3,979 99
Texos Instruments TrovelMote ond Extenso Notebooks
trovaUat 6020. faitm* 120. 11.r TR. 8MI/1 0061. 6X CO intinir
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TravaiMM60S0,failMi'1S0,l3.rTR.I6MI/l.3S6l,6XCDnnAlSir
ltevMMiM60S0tn. faPm* ISO, IM*TR. 32MI/3.16I. lOXCDTOtAISfn
Extaia 600(0, faitm' 120, 12.1' DSTN. IMI/IIOMI-R. 6X CD nnuMO ..
Exfaisa 6S0C0, faitm* 133. 12.1* DSTN. I6MI/I.4GI. IX O lEntSKp
Extan 6S0COT. faitm* 133, ll.TTR, l6MI/2.16t, IXanXTASKDl
Extam 900. faHm* 133, IM* DSTN. I6MI/I.3S6I rom
Extam 900T, faitm* 133, 11.r TR, l6MI/1.3S6lnzTieM
$2,749.99
.3,435.99
372999
4,115.99
1.769.99
1455.99
2,945 99
2,99999
3,499.99
Extam 900COT. fenlm* 133. 11.r TR. I6MI/I.3SGI romncDT
IBM ThiidtPod 760 Series Notebooks
3,999.99
TMfad760(l. faam* 100. 1 1.T DSTN. IMI/IIOMI otmtim
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$2,199-99
41)9.99
5,399.99
4,999.99
3Com Ethernet Adopters ond Hubs
oioCM Hdi. I pail? UnmaoH S169.99
OffioCaiMd Hik, I pat TP TPM nnG67ii 399.99
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OffioCamd 100 Hub XCifHun .....
ttalMb ■ BA. TP Adipar MDCSMir
BbaUdi n BA Cado Ahpla MOCStMC ..
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.. 579.99
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M lOlw-T EAaial Adepia. BA nSiTMTI $21.99
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Edab PO 10/100 Fat EdarMl Ad^ mKlMn ....... 79.99
Hayes Modems
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Xfwwdaiim^^
SpahM 33.6, brianol. 33.6/14.4 MWSIsmi 149.99’
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iiainapeeicvfUMnoaBm oral. Mam ■iHtfapHitVfcMMMhiaemaaiaaMMiabM.MpaMrM-
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■aaitfiM
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4 -1 -i e
PRICE,
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SERVICE
Best Prices— Our incredible
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804HNSIGHT
• 30 Day Money Back
Guarantee
• 60 Day Replacement
Guarantee'
• 24 Hour Toll-Free
Technical Support
• Optional On-Site
Service
• 100MHz Intel Pentium"
processor
• SMB RAM
• 256KB L2 Cache
• 1 .0GB Hard Drive
• 64-bit PCI Graphics with 1MB
• 4X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
• 14.4 Fax/Modem
• 16-bit Sound Card & Speakers
• 14“ SVGA Monitor
(.28 Dot Pitch)
• Keyboard, Mouse
• Microsoft Software Bundle'
• Windows 95
• Mini-Tower Chassis’
Microsoft^ Software
Bundle Includes:
• Microsoft Works & Money
• Encarta Encyclopedia
• Best of Microsoft
Entertainment Pack
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Personal Collection
• Microsoft CD Sampler
• Microsoft Internet
Explorer
pentium‘
The Evctbx AGI 100.. A Complete Internet-Ready
E)esktop PC with Color Monitor and MS Bundle
EVERYTHING YOU NEED IN ONE LOW-COST PACKAGE!
Best PC Values; Everex AGI Series
TOTAL BUSINESS SOLUTION
TOTAL HOME SOLUTION
AG1 133
133MHz Intel Pentium* processor
16MB EDO RAM
256KB LZ Cache
1.6GB Hard Drive
2MB ORAM
8X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
16-blt Sound Card and Speakers
Mlaosotl Software Bundle'
Windows 95
Keyboard, Mouse
1 Year Warranty, 30 Day Guarantee
Mkii-Tower Chassis'
AGI 166
t66MHz Intel PenBum* processor
16MB EDO RAM
512KB L2 Cache
2.1GB Hard Drive
2MB DRAM
8X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
Microsoft Software Bundle'
Windows 95
Keyboard, Mouse
1 Year Wananty. 30 Day Guarantee
Mini-Tower Chassis'
AGI 200 — -
200MHz Intel Pentium* processor
32MB EDO RAM
512KB L2 Cache
2.5GB Hard Drive
2MBWRAM
8X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
Microsoft Software Bundle'
Windows NT
Keyboard. Mouse
1 Year Warranty, 30 Day Guarantee
Mini-Tower Chassis'
15' SVGA Montor. $259
17' SVGA Monitor. 549
3COM EtherUnk III 10BT. 85
33.6 Fax/Modem 79
15' SVGA Monitor. $259
17' SVGA Monitor.... 549
3COM EtherUnk III 1O0T 85
16-bit Sound Card S Speakers 45
15' SVGA Monitor $259
17' SVGA Monitor. 549
3COM EtherUnk III 10BT. 85
16-bil Sound Card $ Speakers 45
Copyii^ 1996 Laving LA IrcnpooM Tht Mel Inside logs and fMum an tiadgmaitisctM UcnsodBingB)eredMemaitnl«UnledSBlasandotierco(rtnasandthalil^^
nwiv Evlow 1^ a 8 ladgnarti o( MonoK CwpoiMn Al nantas. ndeinefics and le^MiV trederals usV l«wi m tie pnpeii)t d N* respectw
mponaiile fix arm (I typoTaptiy or pToiogadV Spacioeone inf pnc« fttiiea to cfitnge Mtnd luaca. '60 day replacaniart guararlee
confm. ful tower arto dMkHp orignlon atoo avVabto. Ptoase cal tor dews. 'One ifeer Mrrinty ofi LCD and 90 (k|ft on biilarv.
One Jump Ahead of
the Competition.
Best Notebook Values: Everex StepNote
L eapfrog Lab, Inc. is an
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Everex AGI and the StepNote”
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twelve years. Leapfrog is backed
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STEPNOTE’ Plus
75MHr Intel Pentium* processor
SMB RAM
540MB Harrj Drive
tO.4* DSTN VGA
Microsoft Software Bundle'
Windows 95
2 Year Limited Warranty'
48-Hour Hot Swap for First Year
STEPNOTE' 133MHz DSTN
133MHz Intel Pentium* processor
16MB RAM
1GB Hard Drive
12.1 'DSTN VGA
10X CD-ROM
Microsofi Software Bundle'
Windows 95
2 Year Limited Warranty'
48-Hour Hot Swap lot First Year
STEPNOTE" 133MHZTFT
133MHz Intel Pentium* processor
16MB RAM
I. 3GB Hard Drive
II. 3' TFT SVGA
10X CD-ROM
Microsoft Software Bundle'
Windows 95
2 Year Limited Warranty'
48-Hour Hot Swap lor First Year
Call us for additional notebook
specials from Fujitsu and Hitachi!
Leapfrog Lab is also proud to
carry VGA cards, sound cards,
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Entertainment Software
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Business Management
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Home Office
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gtack!ki*sPin5.0V3ndiws*a) #141816 ITT*
CoriW(tfia*Prol^igiad;WBithw*9>** #1^ 199"
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1146123 il9*
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niaps quckh and eady: pn^nni ou^
tte eitte OMtty on one Q>-k( At.
HP DeskJet 693C
Printer #i40S07
l1v«Mjuaiiiy 0 )kT prinlinftibr ihe «hole teoily
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Memory
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Scanners
liigiUxJt Scan.Man (i)lor 2000 #14li39 129*
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Video Cards
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Internal
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Portable
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Monitors
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(k)ldstarl5''i8NI(iirvycwi)teimMrS^ #132173 359" |
S(im-ai)-IOQSXI5'.25AGP*(l3riie»dietmafrSi^^
#141226 399* I
NW:(;5flOI5”JSNI(i3r\ittditeinH» #117135 399*
NH:i5"X3'15"t.28NI(l3ir\i««i)fcima(FSi2r) #117002 , .499" |
RIC l7".i8Nl(l57r\Vwi*lm^Sue) #132472 599*
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#141227 699* I
NEC irXV17"f .2SNI(iS,6’Mnte*iiTHjrS») #117003 799* |
199"
1 *A(Mt>R(irdlrl'Kh
. . .199"
1 Digital Cameras
.249"
r
#
1
399*
. -349"
Kodak 1X25 #139279
499*
429"
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499"
499"
Casio QV'lOO #139393
64?"
01)1111X151)3001. #1362SB
899"
. - 49T
Rimtl RIX2 #H2S«
999*
Personal Digital Assistants
(ktsio256K #138776
US Kohotks Pilot 1000 #121740..
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■ 249"
US Robotics Pilot 50(K)
#121737
W
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259"
Sh;upZ-Ute #K3no6 ....
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Cask) 4 MB HIT #14,3688.
Com|iauCI20-«- #139274 .
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Order 7 days a weeK
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You can nia assured knowing that yiur
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Techniced Si^rport Hotime
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International Orders:
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WaltiMivtyisgttnaiapneenrwcunwVMuaoltoBmtgazinaanMfyproduQweMl. ConpUSAOrectpncesMMMDtoVva^fnalofdirandMvaidurMtoinexissMOfTwmegune.er 30 aays<i«T)totaaMc#r«issu*. N#vch«v-
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nr ntmlniAin i^enirji ntlnn. TpnrinifnannrD nirnlatirn frimrartirfir'i rinaia rr-rtiir a tnnir rrr'rm -ffri -r^-frT -“i | — -nr Sora* rasMcaona apply. Bneet and apa cdca t o ra ara auOiaa to tfanga witoom nooca Wara 9 an«ir«
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ractacn. (>« to rn»iUadurars’iestnc&oria.c«rtwi products may i«l be al^ tor (demabonalVitornanl. and certaaiproduoa may not ceavalaCleMa me# order. Ptoasa cal tor detals MondordEpiaysarasniulaied Pertum. tot Mai inada and
ffaretfnPiQcaseoriogosarar o g wm edtradem a rWandMWXeairadamancolFielraalCorpor ai wn Wtodowaearageaaradirademer«alUicroaoan#aUS.andaitwrcotrtnea. Packard Bai « a la^siarad ndamark ol Packard Sal Etodrotws
Inc. IBM Bara^storedtradsmark and ApMwid Total ImagaVidao are ndamadaollraamabonelBusrassMaOwiasCarporaaan. used under acanaamardram. Al otoar tradamirks ara toe preperty d toaa respediva companies aams. otiai man
solhwra, relumed N«v> Ian ( 1 IM days Iromtoadtoaol purcrtoMMhtoa ongnalracaipl or nvoioa are aigtole tar raiund or asnange Unopanadaoftwarvmay barehaned wBmvwty i 30 |deystor retond or aicnanga Opened software may be
ratoned lor eichviga only wlhmffMty(M) days from tie dale dpurdiaae Arestoctongtoac<iual» 15 Sa(ltiapurcrtasapnca«abacbargadona#reaanadaama««tmsaingt»resorpack 8 ^andreMnadonneersw«iinstaledKnaroraiiqe(
carindgas Relunds on casb or cnack puntiaaes r excess Of 42 S 0 wi be by cnack ssued Irom CompUSA's corporate office w#m 10 busaieas days d ffie retun data. Raknds on purchases made w#h a uedi card «nI orey be credsed to me sama
cvd.‘'Preda(puchasaraqured. Caltordeiaib *Lees<ngarrBngKlbyLsas*igGRM>.toAForbuariestuMCrty PrtcesbesedQnSfrmordvoparrendiaaselONpureheseoptnn *toConneaciioniy.tosan(rairierffwirna#-rirebaie St«anicn
Savtoga Ond To You. CompPnee The Low Pnee Period and America s Laigesi Compiaar Stceraiora are sennee marks d CompUSA Inc. CernpuSA and CompUSA Dnd are ragsierad trademarks d CompUSA Inc C >997 CompUSA tnc
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4P/4C Scanner $469/$899
600e
OKEIATA
MlflPI
OKI4W
....$289
ML590...
OU10E....
... $669
ML591...
OL1200....
....$969
ML395...
ML320
....$319
ML3410
IVIODEMS
Hayes Accura 33.6 InVExt ....$109*/$139
Hayes Accura 33.6 Voice Int/Ext ...$149/$16S
Hayes PCMCIA 33.6 Fax $189
Hayes Optima 33.6 Voice lnt/Ext..$209/$219
Megahertz 28.8 V.34 PCMCIA $179
Megahertz Ether/28.8 $279
OlHfioliotlGS
r^e tWiigen Chocr m Minqiian kxasi
AST ASCENTIA
AST-Free shippingtil
J-20-P/100-540/81 0 $1 1 99/S1299
Pentium* chip 120MHz, 1GB, 6X CD
Dual 11.3'/Active 12.1' $2199/$2799
SCANNERS/CAMERAS
Epson Expression 636 Exec $829
Epson Expression 636 Artist $1229
Epson Expression 636 Pro $1699
Epson Photo PC/500 LOWI
Kodak DC-20/40/50 $179/$509/$769
Microtek E3 or E6 $309/$539
Microtek ScanMaker III $1379
UMAX S6E/Sl2Pro $279/3679
UMAX PowerLook II LOW
Visior>eer Paper VX $255
MONITORS
EIZO/NANAO
FX-B5/F2-17/17EX $529/$839/$939
6600/T2-17TS $1079/$919
T2-20 ESP/F2-21 $1819/$1799
TXC7S/FX2-21 $1019/$2869
*' 260/400/450. ..$99/$149/$169
TZJHC. 600/900/1200. .$239/S329$269
Pro 420/650 PNP $229/$269
Smart 450/700/1000 $289/$339/$449
Smart 1400/2200 $5S9/$999
CHIPS
4/6/16/32MB Simms. ..$39/$59/$99/$219
Toshiba EDO 8/16/32 $79/$119/$199
inU OVERORIVI
PROCE$SOR$
Pentium* chip 63/83MHz $139/$179
Pentium* chip 125/133MHz $179
Pentium* chip 150/166 $309/$399
PRJNCETON*
External... [l%baUc8
Free shipping
forS6Kbps
modemain
• download from the Internet and on-line
services at up to 56Kbps — nearly twice
as fast as V.34 modems!
• supports V.34 at 28.6 and 33.6Kbps;
compatible with all current models
Sportster 33.6 Irrt/Ext $99’/$119*
Sportster 33.6 Voice lnt/Ext..$119*/$129*
Sport 33.6 PCMCIA $149*
Courier 33.6 Int/Ext $229/$269
^ after reOete
CIRCLE 336 ON READER SERVICE CARD
DX1495/1595 $249/$319
DX1795/DJ700 $569/$569
DJ530/702/707 • MEW/...$339/$559/$639
DJ717/920 - NEW! $749/$1449
Trinitron
DX15T/ DX700T $349/$639
MewSonic"
15QS/15QA/17GA $349/$399/$649
17PS/17EA/17GS $709/$569/$609
P810/PT810 • 1600x1200 ni.$1519/$1599
G8KVP81S. .21* $1379/$1679
QT77Q/800 $689/$1199
E641/E6S5 • NEWI $249/$329
PT77(V77S/813 $779/$879/$2049
NETWORKING
Novell ManageWise CALL
Net 3.12 5/10/25-user. .$619/$1299/$1799
Net 3.12 50/100/250....$2299/3399/4999
Net 4.11 10/25-user-MEM/..$1449/S2299
Net 4.11 50/100-user-M£iy..$3049/$4999
3 Com ni 1/5/20-pack ...$99/$349/$1299
3Com Combo S/20-pack $499/$1829
3Com 28.8/Ether $289
3Com X900 PCI 1/5-pack. ...$109/$509
Xom 3C900 Ether XL 20-pack ....$1799
Intel Ether 1/5/20 $89/$319/$1149
Intel NetPort Pro Int/Ext $249/$339
e075 - 17* super-high 95KHz hortz.
capable of 1600 x 1200 with .26mm dot
pitch. Indudes Prevu and COLORK3HT
technologyl $689
Ultra 40 - 14' 1024 X 768, .28mm. J219
Ultra 50 - 15' 1024 x 768. .28mm..$279
Ultra m $889
This 82KHz monitor is ao competitively
priced that It actually sails for less than
many compatitor’s 64KHz productal 17*
flat ^uare with .26mm dd pitch and a
maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 ni.
Ultra 20 - 20* monitor with reaokjtiona
up to 1600x1200 ni $10N
EO40 • 14' 1024 X 768 4229
EO50 • 15' 1260 X 1024 $319
E017 - ir has 70KHZ horiz. with 1280 x
1024 ni ar>d a .26mm dot piteh $590
EO70 - 17' 1260 x 1024. .28mm dot
pitch $619
B074 - ir 9599
E076 > DiamondTron .25mm Aper $909
/Arlington
Computer
Product/, inc
Prices and aviilablllty sabiect to change without p.
notice. Quallllad poichasa orders accepted.
Ho surcharge for charge cards!
851 Commerce Coert, Buflalo Grove, IL 60089
HOURS (CENTRAL TIME)
7:30am - 8:30pm /eondai thru Friday !
9:00am -5:00pm / Saturday
■t
800 - 548-5105
We export!
Customer Service and in Illinois 847-541-6333
Shipping 847-541-6595
_ Technical Assistance 847-541-6583
FAX 847-541-8881
’Price comporlson based on MSRP's os of 8/15/96.
rr
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Their Solutions. Micro Solutions.
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400 Pro NT Station
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Copyrighted material
Home-Office Plus
• Intel* Pentium' Processor
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• Professional PS71 6SL 1 7* Nl
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• Intel Pentium Processor
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Diskette Drive
• S3 PCI 64-bit \^deo w/MPEG
4 2MB EDO RAM
• 1 5" NI LR Monitor .28mm dot pitch
• Wavetable Sound Card w/Mic.
4 Headphone
• Amplified Speakers w/AC Adapter
• 33.6 v.34 DSVD PnP
Fax/Modem lintemet Ready)
• Professional EZ Med. Tower C.ase
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• 1 04-Key Keyboard 4 MS Mouse
• Microsoft Windows 05 SR2 CD
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Pentium Processor
Presenuiion a N«icooi Netcruberi
Pentium Processor
200MHz $2,459
106MHz $2,159
!50MHz $2,059
1.13MHz $1,999
120MHz $1,949
Pentium
Pentium Processor
200MHz $1,939
!h6MHz $1,639
ISOMHz $1,539
/33MHz $1,499
120MHz $1,449
Pentium Pro Processor
200MHz $2,039
166MHz $1,739
150MHz $1,639
/33MHz $1,589
!20MHz $1,539
Tel: 909,468,3730 • Fox: 909,468.1372
21038 Commerce Pcinte Drive, Wdtwf, CA 91789
Hours; Mon.-fri, 7am-7pm • Sol I0om-3pm PST
/66MHz $1,399
/50M//Z $1,299
/.13MHz $1,249
/20MHz $1,199
leclinelegies
800 949 5018
Technical Support Call 800 - 787 -8987
Internet http;//www.protessionalpc.com
MARCH 25. iW PC MAGAZINE 411
CUSTOM ER.SATISFACTI ON'S I NC^
Q 0 (MK]eba 00 S‘l^l§
NOTEBOOK
WE SHIP QUALITY
VfKrOQ
MEMORY PRODUCTS
IB 480CDT $2599
IB 490CDS $24'
MA/Vr OTHU MODUS AKUUf If
TOSHIBA’
T4600C $899 T415CDS $1599
T100CS $1199 T205CDS $1899
T405CS $1299 T425CDT $2499
AUNT Omt MODUS AMflAfU
MEMORY^
TOSHIBA'
MOPEb^lABU
(BUZDSEQ m?
PAi
RANAgi>Nl6
SHARR
TEJ
ZEI
rWE ALSO CARRY MANY 1
[fine PRODUCTS FROM^. J
■ HITACHI
SHARR ■ BAA
ACER TWINHEAD
, FUJITSU RtS
COMPAQ
TOAS INSTRUMENTS H-H
—
i
PRINTERS
Canon
BJC-240 $179
BJC-4200 $279
BJC-4550 $499
BJC-620 $399
LBP-465 $359
(SPOTIIGHTSPECIAIS) PRINTERSl
MANUFACTURER REFURMSHEO m 4^ «« '
Expertly Reconditioned by the B £||141 ¥1
BKa'GREAT\®orp» OOKTSi^o"^urKiaill)ll
BJ 200E MRB $89 TONEK,IIWSoiidnn>n«»IKn!!l
BJ 600 MRB $145 »«TOlllS»l3BH'f«0raiS!!!
BJ 6 1 0 MRB $239 ALSO AVAIIABLE;
HP and EPSON '
BJ 4000 MRB
Alt merchandise Mmg relur^d lor credit i^ti include a copy ol the original Invoice, the manulaclurers ondmal canon oackaoinnraii manuals
original shipmeiilwitnin 7 days.^Some relurhs^will be subieci to ai15%_rostocking lee. Call 1-201-875-7e7tllor RMA'aulhdrualion number _
shipped orders or returns tor non delective mefchandit'e7»Nevr Jefsey.atiitWdfIda rasidenlsadde*', salestax. NolresponslbleTor typographical errors'
CmCLE 752 ON READER SERVICE CARO
Kouwell VGA Cards
Have No Limits
KouwelVs New 64-hit
PCI .S VGA 3D Cards
True OLOKS in 3D. Kouwell's new
3D Key Vision S3D uses the ViRGE/DX
A4-bil 2D/3D Multimedia Accelerator,
integrating 170 MH/ of 24-bil true
color RAMDAC and dual clock
synthesizer for lightning fa.si 3D, 2D
and video acceleration for PCs.
Kouwell also offers the blazing fast
Key Vision 128-bil ETWHK) video card
using MDRAM for video memory.
!2H-bit MDRAM is 4(Hn faster
than 64-hit VRAM
Your Source for Quality lO Cards.
SCSI Cards, Raid Controller Cards
and Application Servers
TK
.\\ailahl« at these hK'al dealers naliiinMide
Koutech Systems, Inc
■■Quality i.s Every ihmg"
CA: Micro Tech l209i 4.tK-7.*i8(l
Micro Cil> |6I*9| f$K$l-<inMI
r\: Advanced K’ (9721241-2744
OH: HSB i2l6l49K-1.VSh
Compuirr CreaiHHis (937i4.TS.2777
KS: National Compuier
Re"4iua'e (.3)616X2-940(1
MuKipk' l.ocMtionv:
Lucky C'c*r»puicf\
Micro Supply
NV:OK> Compuier
t T: Micr«» Pro
Canudu:
PC Source Svsiems (90.3|5L3-IX11
(9I2|70.9.2«K1
(2061 SX.3-5420
l3IXl4.tX-2444
(XnO .377-1X00
OE
Por other liKUtions please visit our Website
wH'H'.koutech.com
H’ H' w. kou well, com
koutech.info@worldnei.au.com
OKM and Distributors Welcome!
C /99A Knutti h SvAferru, /m Stuytulk Bl\d Sunui Fe Springs. C^A 90670 All Irademorks are regisierrd and heltmg h> thttr rtspet u\t ots'ners
CmCLE TM ON READER SERVICE CARD
412 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighteu i
M!
524 Prospect Ave. Uttie Silver. NJ 07739
SoKwar* Manufacturers Carried — Call for IBM • MAC • HP • TOSHIBA • COMPAQ
FUJITSU • HEC • HOVELL • OKIDATA • QMS • RADIUS • LEXMARK • TEKTROHIX
SelliiK Price
ADOBE FRAMUUnami MAC CD A69
AD06Ef1tAMEMAKai5.il V50> AM
ADOBE IUV6.0 MAC DSNAD 379
ADQ6EU14.IVR5.IIDSM3) 579
AD06EPAGEMKX6MACDSKAD 429
AD06EPAGEMKIt6V11« 311*95
OaO 429
AD06£rHOT(riHOP3 Di MACDiC 429
ADOBE PHOTO 5-05 nv 3^ 1 1*95
DSKAS 429
AlT00ESK30STlf)l0MAXa) 3000
ALTODESK AITOCAD a R2 vn 3.11 DSK 129
AUTOOe* AITO CAD O’ KDi 95 DCSAD 325
AlTUOfM AITOCAD II 2 WU .3.11 0) iH9
BOnA.’a)C*»5WW3.IIDSK
BORU*<DC**^5WI'(95a)
B0MA.VD DBA.NE 5.5 WIN 3. 1 1 DM
BORLAND PARADOX 7.0 WIN 3- 1 1 Q)
PARADOX 7A WIN 95 nSK
U0REU0fTSITTEr/W3.n 0>
CORD. W P SlITE 6 1 WIN 3 1 1 CD
CORD. W.P sun 7.0 WIN 95 CD
L0nSI23V4ODISIl»
Um9l23 5W1N 3.m»K
209 M.NWXI2K\7.0«1S95INI
2M9 MS nai 5 t IS 3 1 1 DSK
m MS EXin 7 ns 95 DSK
2M M.SDOSI).22DSK
2M MsnSSTSERVTR3.5tO)
239 MStlSSTSi:R\tKiDCUENT4a)
239 A^ WIN ST SHIXTJI 5 OJENT 4 CD
389 M.snsSTHULST.3.5l(D
209 MS«1SSt«MK.ST3.5IDsK
299 MSWISSTnULTAQI
Um5Fnriarbnph2.0W1N3.IIIKX 229 W( omCE PRO 4 3 WIN 3 1 1 DSK
Um9<FitrliKCn(iii9hWLN95DSX 229 MSOmC£PRO'’W1N95(D«/IIKNIUi 389 I6i WORKS nS 95 <D
Um$SMAirritm4.0WtN3IIDSK 2 m MSnm(T.PRI)'.tfnS95Deai 389 SYMANTECAa2W1N3.llllSK
MS11ND0WN3.UDSK 39 MS OfHa ST 4.2 WIN 3 II DSK 289 SIHANTEC Aa 2.1 DOS DSK
MSAIXlS52.0W1N3.llt»X 235 MS OmCE ST 7 nN 95 CO 289 NORTON OBXTOP .3 WTS 3.tltKK
235 MSOfPKZST7W1N95D6K
225 MSPRnfECr4W1N3.IIOSK
225 » POWERPOINT 4 WIN in DSK
34 MS POWERPOINT 7 WIN 95 11SK
499 MSPR0jKTWtN95DSK
689 MSVLSt'ALC**4WLN3.nCD
549 S6VtStALBASM.PR0 4W1N3lia)
225 MS WINDOWS 3.11 WORICRP DSK
225 MSWVRD611N3.IIIKK
2.39 MS WORD ■'WIN 95 nSK
389 MSnN95V70)
289 H)irrAN'nMnS3W1S3.ll*DOSISK
229 NORTON A.NTD1RIS WIN 95 IKK
189 NORTITnmESHWINitl&DOSDSK
189 NOWrntUmsnN95DSK
229 STM PCA.NYW13 2.onN 3.11 DSK
269 SYMPCANTniERENDnSDsK
319 SYM PTANYW1I nN95 NT DSK
M SYM 0&.A 4 DOS DSK
225 SYMQ&A4W1N3-linSK
225
92 .e WTMRi «<d aD usm pk*v (iR br prti
A > _
mniers
HP-C3142A
lAW!iqET4MV
2650
781*
IIP-C3I664
tASHt)U5a
2699
153 LB
Prnia
Deioiptlaai
Price
Veiiai
IP<M6'A
lASOtlET 5SUI1
3750
1581*
HP43655A
DfSKDT .440
319
10 LB
IIP4LI9HaA
LA.NCRIET6P
779
HPC266.U
DESKPT.440CM
329
61*
HP-C.4982A
IA.4HI}rr6MP
939
HP4:2664A
DEsgrr34ocv
329
131*
I94396IA
IDUMt lASH^FT 5
57.30
1.39 LR
IIP-C2642A
DfSKIETAOO
212
I3LB
HP4:.3962A
COLOR USOUET 5M
W2T
1.39 IB
HP-C4547A
DESI}ET600C
225
131*
10*4:1 127A
SCA.<qCT4.snndoai
259
nil*
HP4:2164A
DESigFT6(>0r.
295
131*
IIP4:il37A
STAN.^4P IBM* Comp
499
33 LB
HP4:4549i3
OESIJITKHDC
315
18 1*
MP4;n27A
SCANJ1T4C IBM i> Comp
895
35 L*
HP-C453I4
DISI]U820Cil
393
20 1*
HP4:4661A
OmOJlT .3.30
599
riB
HP-C4555A
DRilQETSTQCxI
489
211*
PrMn/V'axAnpIrr/Scannrr
HP-C3540A
DESqET I600C
ir5
321*
W-U54U
DESIJEr 1600CM
IW6
401*
ACCESSORIES
te-C494U
LA!Clt|rT 5L-FS
465
221*
HP4:2971A
Pniaer Pal Fax Aer
HP-C3I50A
LA.<»W|IT 5P
795
321*
F/Uicrlce
165
51b
HP-C3i55A
LASERJCT5MP
949
50 LB
HP43950A
2-MrwrCalik. I2K4
10
lib
fP-C39l6A
iaseb;lt5
1229
521*
CTaaptoVpafalld
IV-C3952A
lA2EllilT5N
1459
531*
HP4395IA
3-Mr4rr C^. 1284
13
I ib
ITC59ITA
LAS3^T5M
1750
531*
campKaia/paralld
Q Systems servers
SYSTEMS • NOTEBOOKS
P-D413IA Veora5l5CD VlOO
P-D4I34A VKtra5iOC> VlOO
P-DaU'A >c(tn510MDi VlOO
P-IHI39A VcctJi5IOMCiVIOO
P-D4121A 4cctn510VI2e
1215 44 1* HP-DaI^aA >«tra5l5Nb VI50SBC2129 3
1240 381* MP-D4I63A AMra 515 MCx V166 2210 3
1395 591* HP^r5A Ycclrs5l5MCi 5066 SIC 2300 3
1440 441*
1170 3RU ACCESSORIES
1P-D4I69A Vmn 5IOCO VI20 SBC I5M 3*1* HP-D280RS 15 ladi iMt EatbMM Saper
tf-fHITIA 3Klra5IOCa VI20SIC 1170 441* VGA Dbfis) r 1*
IP-D4I50A Vrcin5l5VI33 1320 441* HP D2M9A 15 led) Mallincdla Dliplaf
V-D4I49A Vedra 510Mb 5/133 1620 381* 44 1*
e-D4l52A Vcctn 515Mb VI33 1820 441* HP-D28I.3S 14 lach .5«p(r VGA DitpU>
e-D4l'2A Vtara5l5C0 5033SK 1780 44 U 421*
e-l>4l73A Vectra 515Mb 5033 9C 2010 44 I*
— Prim Mbtaette cKtaia »MMal aedta. AH parUaenl
COW TO* QfdCI'- maaafaelaret aiiaejjWfMHt/praHael KMiM art
place http://www.signalcomputing.com
CIRCLE 754 ON READER SERVICE CARD
When You Spoke, Sirex Listened,
You Said: *7 really Need the Latest TechnologyUT
0
.’S *'’/
“I**.®**
We Listened:
iS HERE
Intel TUCSON Motherboard
Yamaha sound Chip Included
Call for Today's Paice
System Includes
256KB Pipeline Burst Cache
Four (4) PCI 32 Bit Expansion Slots
Three (3) ISA 16 Bit Expansion Slots
AMI Bios — Supportino Full Plug & Play
32 Bit Dual IDE Interface (Supports 4 OEVICES)
I Dual 16550 Hi-Speeo Serial Ports
Hi-Speeo Printer Port
16 MB EDO RAM (8MBx2)
1 .44 Floppy Drive (3.5')
ATX Midtower Case WITH
235 Watt Power Supply
I 101 Enhanced Keyboard
Options:
Multimedia Kit including 8 CD-Rom.
SoumoBuster 16. Speakers. & Titles
$199
33.6 Internal Fax/Mooem
$82
14- SVGA.28DP Monitor
$199
15' SVGA 28DP Monitor
S280
17- SVGA .26DP Monitor
$599
ATI 2 Meg DRAM
$69
Fujitsu 1 .2 GB Hard Drive
$199
Fujitsu 2 GB Hard Drive
$259
Toll Free 1*888*SIREX02 (1-888-747-3902) Fax 916-326-8060
Visit us on the web: www.sirexusa.com
4 Hr Mai huidi Ufo m>i httiam war ngiUmd in^rmtrib tad HOT B a fnM'iiiie4 nf MiM CarpaHttm
CIRCLE 75$ ON READER SERVICE CARD
MARCH 25.1997 PC MAGAZINE 413
BOARDS/COMPONENTS/CHIPS
I Features:
Large hard drrve support ■ 4 drives up to 8 gigs each
Plug & Play support for Windows 95*
Support for the newest operating systems and CPUs
Multi-level password security built in.
None of the disadvantages of overlay software
Best technical support before and after the sale
Free lifetime maintenance updates
micRO
FIRMWARE
TH€ ONLY AUTHOfUZEO
PHOENIX DEVELOPER
AND DISTRIBUTOR
SINCE 1987
^ MAJOR CREDIT CARDS. C.O.D. & PREPAY ORDERS ARE ACCEPTED
K UNIVERSITY. INSTITUTIONAL & CORPORATE PURCHASE ORDERS WELCOME
Si -800-767-5465
Q Email orders; saies@firmware.com 1 '405-321-8333
World Wide Web: http://www.firmware.com
Ni_t
www.nl ttech.com
ORDefSTg)NLrTECH.COM
8 ea 799 .is^
520 . 790.7465
FAX 520.790.5890
CIRCLE 7$S ON READER SERVICE CARO
imiCK WALL...
THE WORLD'S BEST SURGE SUPPRESSOR
Slondard surge suppressors
degrade with use aad M.
Brkk WaB produrts were
inilitAf en»t>eeted hr (rdkol
ttonm tnwfriof qtpkotiom
Ihey proteft k^fk^ and
set a new storj&ffu every
meesute of surge si^essot
petformanre
How important
is your system?
BRICK WALL DIV., PRICE WHEELER CORP.
E-mail: info^rickwall.com • Web: hMp://w>MtN.brickwall com
800 - 528-0313
CIRCLE 756 ON READER SERVICE CARD
CIRCLE 769 ON READER SERVICE CARD
£
i
£
I
S
o
o
«)■
Q
ce
o
CD
M'
M Day Mouay Raoh Guaranlaa
SYSTEMS - COMPONENTS
a
C wt wiif S*mct 714-«i-l4tt
Haara Itoa-rfi tawn-tyai PIT.
tu m-wi-ias
SHIPPING
aainirOfcutolMta*
FedEx
ANNUAL BLOWOUT SALE!
I % niMHt PRO
I 3 maNb p-e
UJ
0.
t77SXiXK20e«MHT. S3M ^ K-5 P 1SI MHi
S630 {reXM1W4MHz. $1IOSR-&P-18tMHt $
$3M>IXM1Se*MHz. S13S 2 K-9 P-M MHz $
S22SO*XM1S»*MHz tllS ^ K S P-79 MHz $
$120
80
ABt M8TWIIM88i T8 AIT PRiCmW PMCt F8R SH.M exCtPT P-PRO
MB SPEC'S INta TRITON 3 VX. 4-PCI 3ISA, 256t( PIPELINE CACHE. ON BOARD ElOE A I/O, 4 72 PIN
SIMMS SOCKET. 2 DIMM SOCKH
■ngiEr%ip:ggao
72 PIN SIMMS MAJOR NAME BRAND
NON PARITY
32 BIT
PARITY
36 BIT
EDO
4-MEGS
20
22
29
B-MEGS
36
40
38
16-MEGS
76
78
74
32-MEGS
ISO
150
145
II MiiRBry Life Tine Warranty
SUPER SPECIAL BUNDLE
iMPal
5X86 AMD 133 MHz. AND MOTHERBOARD FOR ONLY $110
MB SPEC'S: 3-PCI 4-ISA A 1VLB. ON BOARD ElOE & FAST 1/0. 256K CACHE. 4-72
PIN SIMM SOCKETS. AMI BIOS. B.r X B.S*
1366 Loun Ave. #G >mwm ^
U* Mcea, CA 92626 «**?»*«-*,—»*
CnCLE 757 ON READBT SERVICS CARO
414
PC MAGAZINE MARCH 2.S. 1«W7
ROM BIOS UPGRADES
Do you need new AMI, Award, MR BIOS or Phoenix BIOS?
• Mini dnw Mippon bryond
• Su|i(K>n Plut & PU>
• IvrUrfim’dlMnl
dmvtxprk
• m4 "VIW btippon
• PJ-lT A PiiKiiun b«^rpnrt
• (H Rd t kiro Support
UUE./IKA iraa’Jalwn
>n i 2/1 11/2 IWMB
Dnvn
^ 1 • ' 1 1 f port Mippoft
Ttirrc Irwb at pia«»vrd
proteOMw
TIm OM*s( and B$OS U p fr m dwr in the WetHd
— OuMrmnteed Lowemt Price* AM the Time —
NOW SH/PP/NG INTEL TRITON UPGRAOeS!!!
LU;i[en:l 4 ORDER TODAY!
800 * 800 >BIOS
(*467)
CIRCLE 760 ON READER SERVICE CARO
TRANSFORM YOUR CP-ROM
INTO A PARALLEL PORTABLE
A Quick and simple installation
▲ Works with IDE/ATAPI drives
A Perfect upgrade for any PC
A Works with standard and high-speed EPP Printer ports
A Complete Kit; Everything you need, just add the drive
IDE/PP CD Drive Transformer $89
PEALEK & VOLUME PISCOUNTS.CALL
wirita. I-S 00 - 87 B’VAIU( 8256 )
16091 ResatU Unc . S« Jot., CA 9Sm nr 40»43T-(3M Fas aOMlT 9333
CIRCLE 761 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Copyrightec:
THE FINEST PC CIRCUIT BOARDS!!!
COMPUTER
LABORATORIES
B f the nation's largest full-line PC circuit board specific
manufacturer and distribufor caters to individuals and
* businesses Interested in only the finest hardware and
sen/ice at the best price, provided by a long term,
financially stable company. For over a decade, we at
MSB have earned our standing as the most reputable circuit board
manufacturer and distributor In the industry. Don't make the mistake of
buying "Throw-Away' circuit boards from a company without any long
term commitment to your satisfaction. If
we sound like what you're looking for.
please give us a call at...
( 800 ) 497-0401
CUSTOMER SERVICE...
, A rigorous 72 hour burrvin procedure.
Sl We will not ship any board that does
not perform flawlessly.
A full 3 year warranty on all HSB made
liL circuit boards. This warranty covers
100% of both ports and labor,
A limited lifetime warranty is Included
^ on all 'Turbo' SIMM and DIMM memory
modules, and all CPU's.
TarboRffMExpms
80ns
70ns
60ns
50ns
40ns
^ ;:Sr'.
65°
■ Typical 60ns EDO SIMM
* HSB 50ns Turtx)’ EDO SIMM
■ SYSTEM FAILURE!
MainBoard
* RAarlis/Writo
95°
For about the same price you'd pay for unreliable.
Bargain Basement' memory, you could have the finest
memory the industry has to offer, on hand just a day
after you place your order. Quality MainBoards need
60ns memory as an absolute minimum. Heat, humidity
and time can radically slow down your memory's
access speed. Why run your PC at the ragged-edge of
stability? Insist on 'Turbo' RAM...
From us you'll receive...
• Free overnight express shipping on all 'Turbo' RAM.
• Same day shipping on virtually all
memory orders placed by 5pm EST.
• Guaranteed compatibility.
• Our 60 day 100% money-back guarantee.
• One of the nation's largest 'Turbo' RAM inventories.
HSB 64-Bit AT and ATX HSB 128-Bit and 64-Bit
MainBoards PCI Bus Video Cards
Our MainBoards are the flnest on As is the case with all of our
the market, designed from the MainBoards, HSB manufactures
ground up to compete head-to- and distributes only the fastest,
head with the most expensive most reliable and trouble free
and sophisticated designs video accelerators available. All
available. Our MainBoards are HSB OEM video cards are PCI
guaranteed to outperform all Plug & Play' compatible, offer up
other comparable PC MainBoards available. You'll also
receive our unparalleled three year manufacturer's warranty
covering 100% of both parts and labor on all HSB circuit
boards. Whether you're thinking of upgrading your existing
system, or building a new one from scratch, you can't go
wrong with HSB...
HSB 'Turbo' RAM Memory
Our 72-Pin EDO SIMM's are
tested down to 50ns for the
utmost in compatibility, stability
and speed. Our 55ns ECC
SIMM's are specifically
engineered to take full
advantage of Error Correction
Circuitry' capable MainBoard
chipsets. Keep in mind that our top grade memory modules
are assembled right here in the USA, and feature an
unprecedented limited lifetime warranty against manufacturing
defects. If your philosophy is 'Nothing But The Best', we also
offer a wide selection of the industry's fastest 168-Pin
Synchronous DIMM memory modules...
to 16.7M color capability, feature a full 3 year warranty and
boast the guaranteed fastest, most up-to-date video drivers for
all popular software and operating systems, with the finest
24-hour OEM BBS video driver support. Always remember that
video cards are only as fast and stable as the drivers that work
with them...
COMPUTER
LABORATORIES
MANUFACTURERS • DISTRIBUTORS • WHOLESALERS
Please call for up to the minute pricing, or to
receive your free color catalog!
HSB gladly accepts major credit cards and COD'S HSB Corporation • 34206 Aurora Road #297 Cleveland. OH 44139 216-496-1356 [Local] 216-498-1374 [Fax]
MARCH 2 *>. tW PC MAGAZINE 415
BOARDS/COMPONENTS/CHIPS
BOARDS/COMPONENTS/CHIPS - COMMUNICATIONS
phone® chairman
^ A/eu/
H Q:aznZ2ZCZ57
K
pH
COMRAUIBVE
Contact us at
Fax# HONG KONG (852)
gseeid
INTHNn
Web Page
E-flol
leip.//www choiftnon coni|
UMMcOdonnon com |
WORLDWIDE PATENT PENDING
CIRCLE 782 ON READER SERVICE CARD
OOM'T ^
eETMADi
GiT YOUR MESSAGES!
ni's Wew 4-PLAY
Voice Processing Cord &
Voice Window Application Sohwnn
PEAGOfimiFORUNDBIA lUOUSmOOUARS
1-800-934-4^4
NC/VISA/UKl
Are you getting it?
Optimum Performance
KeyboardA^ideo & Mouse Switches
KVS dcK\s much more than just switch peripherals. But, with
all the pixxiucts on the market today, which system will be
the best solution for your cx)mpany? Give ytxirself complete
ontrni over your data center and how it’s personel operate.
IHE Smart Choice is
TR r-
RON.
Let experienced technicians take
you through the KeyboardA^ideo
Switch maze of vendors and
pixxkkxs. After all, we inlroduc'ed the technology to you in
our Industry Standard Key'hoard/\'ide() SuntchfKV^)
PtilK^r. 7'ton uses and test KVS prod-
ucts in our own offices and lab.
'XlK*rv each vendor prcxnoles their own
product. Tron c'iin give you a cxxnplete
compiiiison of .several fxxxlucts all at once.
Call! for your copy of the
White Paper
CIRCLE 788 ON READER SERVICE CARO
Or. dtiwniuKl die KtyixxinLVklert Switch (KVS)
Vt-tuie Paper firm nur intenxi siw MirxLOOcn
INTERNATIONAL. INC.
(800) 808-4672
CIRCLE 764 ON READER SERVICE CARD
lets you do
more
do it for
, 7 better,
less! ’
Announcing the AutoView Commander;
j the keyboard/video/mouse switch with all the right stuff!
More ways to select attached servers with convenient on-screen
menus, traditional Cybex push-buttons or a quick keyboard sequence.
^ Better design for easy reconfiguration without powering down the switch
or attached servers. And best of all ... it costs less than many comparable switches
Now that's good stuff. ^ j, Hanover, Germany
One Company. One Solution. Cybex. March 13-19
Cybex Computer Products Corporation
4912 Research Drive Huntsville, Alabama 35805 USA
(205) 430-4030 fax
■ n H
RANYAS SSS
(800) 93CYBEX (29239) •
http://www.cybex.com
AutoView is a trademark of Cybex Computer Products Corporation. Cybex is a registered trademark of Cybex Computer Products Corporation. Banyan is a
trademark of Banyan Systems Inc Netware is a registered trademark of Novell Inc lantastic is a register^ trademark of Artisoft Inc
CNICLE 783 ON READER SERVICE CARO
416
PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25,1997
Copyrightea mafci
CIRCLE 7«6 ON READER SERVICE CARO
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418 PCMACiAZINE MARCH 25. IW7
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MARCH 25. 1W7 PCMACiAZINE 421
CIRCLE 772 ON READER SERVICE CARO
MASS STORAGE DEVICES - MUSIC/MIDI - NETWORKING
PD isn’t just a high-capacity, removable storage solution... By
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• Unlike CD-R, PD media is rewritable
• PD media has a data life of 30+ years
• And, they’ll be able to read their PD media with future
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Use it for low-cost, reUable storage of desktop publishing
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The versatile PD also plays your CD-ROMs, CD-R, photo-
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PD, the 650MB rewritable optical drive with economical,
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For the storage solution that meets your needs today and
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422 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25.1997
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c
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MARCH 2S. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 423
MASS STORAGE DEVICES ■ SOFTWARE/BUSINESS APPLICATIONS HT’ 1% /M~ X XI?
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CIRCLE 604 ON READER SERVICE CARO
424 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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CIRCLE 7M ON READER SERVICE CARO CIRCLE 7M ON READER SERVICE CARO
426 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
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MARCH 25.1997 PCMAOAZINE 427
SERVICES/ONLINE SERVICES
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MAR( H 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 429
CIRCLE 812 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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Iff i»
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MITSUMI
50 rxto. $i2S-2rs
TS r»‘ -x nfit 156.305
SVGA-T1II DENT
4S7 Chcmtnut mtreet, ^ftffocfefpftfa m f9f06
r: Mr/MOM>TfMHi; BtOB^rOB/WEtl: BrOO’TrOB/BMT •
CIRCLE 557 ON READER SERVICE CARD
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 431
SEAGATE • CARDtNAL • LEXMARK • 3COM
BOARDS/COMPONENTS/CHIPS
Thousands of brand name
items for less!
MONITORS
Beimea ir .27 Nl $ 499
Daytek 14’ .28 Nl S 205
Daytek15' .28NI $ 285
Daytek 17” .28 Nl $ 525
EizoFX-B515'FS .28 $ 518
E«zoTX-C7S irT.28 $ 987
Eizo TX-D7S 20" T.25 $ 1 789
MagDX-1595 15’ $ 325
MagDX-1795 ir $ 585
Princeton EO-40 $ 218
Princeton EO-50 $ 329
Princeton EO-70 $ 519
Many offier brands foot
TRAINING VIDIOS $49
• Learning Windows 95
• PowerPoint / Excel 95
• Prog. In C++ / JAVA
• Photoshop / Illustrator
• Quark I PageMaker
Most programs offered/
• SAMSUNG • MAGNAVOX
Tcchnology Depot
www.techdepot.com
ss a
ir
;$499
Cmon^
InkJet
y$119j
SYSTEMS
P133 16/1.2GB 10X 33.6 $1299
P166 32/2.0GB 10X 33.6 $1499
P200 64/4.3GB 12X 33.6 $2299
NOnBOOKS
Sharp P100 8/1 .1/DS $1449
» Sharp P120 16/1.1/6x/DS $1999
Hitachi P15016/1.3/8X $Call
VIDEO CARDS
ATI 3D Xpression PCTV $149
ATI Graphics Pro 2M $169
Diamond Stealth 64 2200 $109
Matrox MGA Millen 3D 2m$169
Number 9 Motion 771 2m $199
FAX MODEMS
33.6 data/14.4tex int. $ 79
Motorola PCMCIA 33.6 $199
DATA STORAGE
Iomega ZIP Drives $ 1 35*
SCANNERS
Epson Scanneiil 2400 $399
Epson ESIOOOc 3200 $549
'AtKr Iomega mail-in reoata of ^ 00
CIRCLE 558 ON READER SERVICE CARD
DIAMOND
Ralin is your BEST SOURCE for Computer Ports & Systems
Specializing in CORPORATE, EDUCATIONAL & GOVERNMENT Business
CAN'T FIND IT? CALL US!
OUR JOB is to make YOUR JOB EASIER!
Motherboards • Momory • Notworkirtg • Notebooks « Coses • Power Protection • Hard Drives
CD-ROM Drives • Monitors • Video Cords • Printers • Sconners • Tape Back-Ups • Modems
SAMPLE PRICES
PLEXTOR IZx SCSI CD-ROM $299
PHILIPS IS" Hultlrntdia Monitor $329
SAMSUNG 1.6 Gig Hard Drive SI89
PRAaiCAL PERIPHERALS 33.6 int $116
WHOLESALERS. INC.
Bunolo. NY 14127
Fox: 716426-9641
• OVER 10 YEARS IN BUSINESS
• CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS
• MAJOR BRAND NAMES
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• FACTORY DIRECT
MMPtin PKWt iWT
WE ACCEPT CREDIT USDS
I
ADAPTEC • ATI • CREATIVE LABS • HAYES • NEC • DAYTEK • EPSON
CIRCLE 550 ON READER SERVICE CARO
Micro Edge Technologies au est s43o 800*654*7025
Fox 914-686 6808
16 McDougal Drive 1 ho. White Plain-s, NY 10603 E mail: salcsWmicroedgelech.com htlp://www.microedgelecb.com/
Grant Pricing on Nama Brand Gomputara •
Call for Full Color Catalog I
Computers Processors Hud Drives Removable
1 Modems
Monitors
Canon
Intel Seagate Storsge
Boca
CTX
Toshiba
Cyrix Maxtor Iomega
Cardinal
MAG Innovision
Hitachi
AMD Western Digital SyQuest
Creative Labs
Magnavox
Sharp
Diamond
NEC
Custom
Purchase on line:
Hayes
Princeton
http://www.microedgelech.com/
Motorola
Sony
Us Robolics/Megahertz ViewSonic
CD ROM Drives
Video Cards Sound
Scanners
Digital Camaras
Creative Labs
ATI Creative Labs
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Epson
NEC
Creative Labs Altec Lansing
Umax
Casio
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Diamond Lablec
Microtek
Ricoh
Philips
Matrox SCSI
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Kodak
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Number Nine Adaptec
Logitech
Full Box Versions— Not Low Quality OEM Packs / World Wide Web Services Availeble
potM • Rttumt occapMd iniim 30 oayt o( sAip oeit • RUA* is raquaad el ol iifurM/ncftongs • Raium art tuaiaci m o 20% lastock- flTti
ng IM • SNppmg cfntgts
ora not mcHidteond ora non rafuoOeeia * Nomas and logos ora propodY ol Itiaa respeeftva componias
NOTEBOOK BAniRIES
APPLE 140 -180 $44
Canon Innova IOC NiCD 69
Compaq Centura NiMH 115
Dell 320 SLI NiMH 89
Epson AN-SLC33 69
IBM TP 700/700C NiMH 149
IBM TP 750/755C NiMH 169
NEC Versa EA/ 139
PanaCF170/270/370 74
Sharp PC3000 159
Tl TM3000-4000 64
Tosh tl 800/1 900/2400/4700 99
Toshiba 11900//2100/
2400/4700/4800 NiMH 129
TS34 NiCD 64
Zenith ZSTAR NiCD 139
We stock batteries
for over 2000 notebooks.
Pius a NSW line of auto adapters! 1 1
CIRCLE 560 ON READER SERVICE CARO
432 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25,1997
MEMORY
Sisnderd 72 pin SIMM
4mb 1X32/36 60ns $16/25
8mb 2X32/36 60ns 31/44
16mb 4X32/36 60ns 68/83
EDO 72 pin SIMM
4mb 1X32 $ 16
8mb 2X32 44
16mb 4X32 83
Call for daily prices!
• Money back guarantee
• All items new unless specilied
• No surcharge for credit cards
• Prices— subject to change w/o notice
• Purchase orders subject to approval
• Personal/ company checks in advance
• COD, money order, & cashier's checks
201-808-8725 • Fax; 201-80M726
800 - 882-8682
PC UPQRMi
NOTEBOOK MEMORY AVAILABLE-
MEMORY CPU
4 MEG SI 6 P100 $120
8 MEG $32 P133 S200
16 MEG $75 PI 50* $125
32 MEG $150 PI 66* $185
L DIMM CALL P200 $499
W95 0EMCAa P-PRO CALL
INTEL—*CYRIX—AMD
MRSSIUE STORAGE
850 $149 1.60 $229
1.08 $199 2.10 $249
1.20 $209 2.50 $309
M BOARD V CARDS MODEMS-CD ETC
MIAMI INT'L FAX (305) 598 • 6770
M • F 9am • 8pm SAT 12pm • 5pm EST
1 - 800 - 621-8309
VISA • MC AMEX DISCOVER
PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE
CIRCLE 582 ON READER SERVICE CARO
MEMORY
1-888-24-SIMMS
http://www.24simms.com
LIFETIME WARRANTY
The Real Lowest Prices
30 Pin SIMMS
1Mb -4 Mb
72 Pin SIMMS
4Mb -.12Mb
168 Pin DIMM
4Mb - 32Mb
•All iiuyor credit car ds
.iccepted with no suivhiity.e.
PCI, Inc. 7825 NW, 29 Street
# 145-B, Miami Florida 33122
Fax: (305)639-4781
Ph. (305)639-3336
aRCLE 583 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Copyrighted materia!
BOARDS/COMPONENTS/CHIPS
We'll Ray YOU for Your Computer Memory!
W* BUY Back All Typas of IWomory...
30 pin, 72 pitty 108 pftty SIWUMS, DIMUMSy Notebook A Las*r M«mory
All Memory Has Value!
Call us and got a prico for your momory.
We AIsc
72 RIN SIMMS
1
s
1
NOTEBOOK
MOM (MUrT)
PAMiTV PAIMTY
SOKAM AagU l*SPtN
iMrat tggriM acc/soo
4 • t* 39
Iii33
7 m 37
4x37 ISMB
• x37 37M3
l«aS7 64MB
'9 00
3BOO
OO
149 00
49B.OO
3B.OO
H OO
149 OO
99 OO
• 99 OO
349 OO
499.00
30 RIN SIMMS
o Complete LItse ef De*lctep« Netebeek, Leptep, Seltnete, Credit Card (1C DRAM) Medttles,
Video, Ceclte ottd Mucloteoh Memory UparoaoB. Cell with your machltte typnl
• Lifetime Warrantyl Cofl for CPU Chip Pri<‘
Memory Modules New A Uted have
K Warranty! Cofl for CPU Chip
r»n rs!E
ILr 1. qu. 2. o3.sa.A4
C800) 71 8-:
Email: thememlIq<9aol.com
o wW B sst mm 9 h
531 Main St,, Ste.1174, El Sepundo, CA 90245 • Ph. 310-326-5056 • Fox 310-326-7790
CIRCLE 564 ON READER SERVICE CARO
^ POWER
BIOS
Professionial
S.MJL.R.T. SYSTEM support*
Ultra- Versatile Best Manager!
✓ Allows B<m>i from any 4 Primary
Paniiion
✓ ft>wcr BIOS is an aikl-on card
with an EIDFABA BIOS
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ihntwing away yuur IDK c«min>Ucr^
✓ Very Easy lnsiallaiK>nf
✓ Lets you asc new hard disks Rivairr
than 8 RiRahylcs'
9^ {■4)mpadhlc with Win •M.OV2*
9^ Multi-seui)f irad/x rite up to .40%
sp«:d-up'
✓ AuUKictcction of up to 4 hard disks'
✓ AulopartitioninR of new hard disk-s!
✓ Virus detection'
Vetuiors. Reseller Wanted!
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Slonmr TrchiioloRics InlemaUoRal
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CIRCLE 568 ON READER SERVICE CARD
MEMORY
standard Simms
Pnntcr Memory
HPS>I,V!»
HP I ©
78 Pin Simms 30 Pin Simms hp29 4 4H4Si
XllNonPirlly Ptrlty E Non Ptrity HP19^0A)0-750
TONS 60HS 70n$ 60ni HP4VP,4P.4*,4W».(V
4MB 19 91 1M8 . r 9
6MB 33 34 4 •: 14
16M6 75 76 luB 4 6t
39M0 149 158 ^ !r
64MB 389 • "
XJlPtnty tDO
70ns
18
38
79
39MS 149
TONS 60NS
4MB 96 97 4M6
SMB 47 48 8M8
16MB 86 89 ixmb
39MB 167 169
64MB
499
60ns
33
159
tPlMV.SMP.SP.SSlO
HP41 <1M£G)
HP QJSOO Senes (9550
rt>Sl
Pr«tcnc 4410, 4430
Pnsonc 44S0. 4450
T1 AAaotso (1MEG S481 -
T71
49 w m
84 1U
84 144 -
80m
Dirnm Memory (168 pin)
ares
$69
9 >
ICneg
119
SOtAMai/
1S4
3ane3
238
296
64mc9
!4v
648
95MOcp
956(16501
956(16 ZFPCs
956(169QJEDO
9566 SOI
-c-
Net 30 days to fortute 1000 conpameSt gcwiii xjU rstituDons and urtversntes. Please fn POff
WW W.AVALONMlCRO.COM E-M ail Address SateseAvalofvnicro.com
anCLE S65 ON READER SERVICE CARO
Cache Memory
MwkI IMS 4ME 6MB 16HB
EpSOnAi 1000, 1500 79 158 - -
EmonALtlX, 1400. 1600 - 79 IX 995
66 96-
- 56 9B 196 398
38 3B 78 146 338
36 38 78 148 336
8Kx8
3910(8
39Kx8(33)
3210(8 (SOJ)
64Kx1
64KX4
16KX4
64Ki«
64x8 (SOJ)
128Kx8
95ns 90ns 15ns 19ns
4MB
SMB
16M6
39MB
Mon.-fn. 7AM-5PM I Sat. 8AM-1PM PST
(800) 610-1216
688 tfO, Weis Rd., B(XJtder City, NV 89005
Phone (709) 993-9300 FAX (709) 993-4453
(JP£RAbEFESTimj
Unveil the true power of Wtn95 6 NT1
4 MB SIO
6 MB $30
16 MB $60
32 MB $190
(T9IN EOO &XAM)
C4U tea THE UITttT NIXCCN ON
US. cnj. VS4. m. c&aoms • Motei
JUSTUPlSRAOedSAVEf
AMD UT (FOR ONLY $299)
1) DX4-100MHZ CPU
2) P4 MB * 296K CACSC
3} IAMB FAST EDO MEMORY
4) 33 FLOPPY DRIVE
9) 4 EIDE < 2 FD. lEPP • 2S (HXEfQ
6) CASE * 200WPS. 9 BAYS
INTEL aj (FOR ONLY $399)
I PENHUM lOOAdtZ CPU
INTEL VX430 MB * 296 PLC
16MB FAST EDO MEMORY
33 R.0PFY DRIVE
4 ElOE > 2 FD. lEPP « 2S(KI6H)
CA SE>200M/PS.9BAyS
CYRIX ar (FOR ONLY $499)
t) CYRIX P166*MHZ CPU
2} VX430 INTEL MB • 296 PLC
3) 16MB FAST EDO MEMORY
4) 33 FLOPPY DRIVE
9) 4 EIDE • 2 FD. lEPP • 2S^<I6H)
6) CASE * 200W PS. 9 BAYS
MOThEiBOm)5.ETC^
(SOO) S^-STiS (ZOt) 9 * 9 -COt 6
VISA MASWt AMCx ossc/reoexurs
1/(9 And^rton A >mut. fidft Lee. NJ 07014
CIRCLE 569 ON READER SERVICE CARO
(toll free) 888-235-8742 www.microhd.com
NAME BRAND QUALITY PRODUCTS FOR THE BEST PRICE
Intel Triton VX w/512K Cache M/B
ISmbEDORAM
Western Digital 1.2gig H.D
2meg D. Stealth 64 DRAM
Video Card
Creative Labs 8x IDE CD-ROM
Sound Blaster 16 PnP Card
Windows 95 Keyboard
Cardinal 33.6
Voice/ Fax/ Data Modem
Microsoft Mouse
Windows 95 CD
Princeton Graphics 15"
SVGA Monitor
Enlite Mini Tower Case
Stereo Speakers
Pentium 120— $1759 Pentium 133— $1799
Pentium ISO— $1849 Pentium 166— $1949
Pentium ZOO— $2199
OR CUSTOM BUILD YOUR SYSTEM WITH
THE HELP OF ONE OF OUR SALES REPS.
CmCLE SM ON READER SERVICE CARD
PC DEPOT
1800 - 570-8828
I cat! us tost for the Best price!
|Hetirt Man Fn lam'Spa.Sal 1Baa lpHiP$T|
MEMORY
LIFETIME WARRANTY
HgQ^gjp
50-pln
tMB 9
1MB IS
4MB -tm 23
4MB4IIJRC 35
7 2 -pin iOO
4MB ilTM'IB
8M8 .i’Ff>33
I6MS ui. ' 69
32MB.niiM35
73-plnr.v.
4MB •3760H9
8M8 34
l6Me-i>r<.75
32MB > . 145
72 pin ..A .
4M8 ilSBOTB
8MB 56
tlMB ;i ' 79
32MB > IBS
168oinOiMM
8MB tv IS
16MB 149
32M8 289
ACER 4MB IMB 16MB
-'-3 765,712 794
AST 4M6IMB16MB
ht - 8O190Q,3iij“5i.-V - iw
At . . ''0.J2QJ30.JM n/A Bb 155
Auutia P30 P50 N.-A 99 199
ATAT/NCR (Mt(65 95 145
CANON V- 2 GO 1 S 55 95 169
486 C25/C33/M33 65 89 165
Compact 4MB8MB16M6
I llfV'
h.A 75
4100 UfWT H;A 79
C»." Ama Umtffs 55 7'- 165
Coniwt 410410.470430 45 Sb 159
CaniM.t4 ?54'33 49 B9 175
iT; • — vioo.sr-'- - S A 145
DELL 4MB 8M6 16MB
lnittiiN431 450 475.4in bh BS ’59
Digital mr'.bv 49 84 149
4MB 8MB 16MB
EPSOn
Fujitsu
Gateway - --r '.'b
H-P 715
Hitachi N/A us 7'b
IBM 4MB 8M6 16MB
lh-l;jd 350,350370 4i . ug
ThiPtPki 755C.COCE CO( 69 ‘i', t?5
IhiAkPtd 760C/CD/U0 N. A 8b i>
ThmiPad 78«/(0/(l 79
NEC .v;wa60N N^A 95 ' ^
Sharp iig 189
Texas inst.i. va
T oshiba 4 mb8mbi6mb
... . - ‘./A ;ub
Prices tax
avattah^tvmAfeet\
■.IFWWffilljlWI
tochange without notice. Call for the latest prices.
CIRCLE 567 ON READER SERVICE CARD
MARCH 25. I«W7 PC MAGAZINE 433
CLASSIFIED
BOARDS/COMPONENTS/CHIPS - COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Your #1 Source For Memory
Harddrives, CD-ROMS, Motherboards & more I
72 pin Non-Parity
8 meg - $31 16 meg. •$ 66
32 meg,-$ 125
3.3> 168 Pin Dimm
1 6 meg. • $ 79 32 meg. •$ 1 89
Intel/ IBM / AMIH puN
AMl)X5-l33-$39
686-PI50+.$ 125
686-PI66+-S 155
686-P200+- $ 355
Intel Pl66-$399
Intel MMX-I66-$415
Intel MMX-200- $ 585
A«Ivmu<'«‘«I Chi|»N, iHt*.
Toll Free 888-910-9500
http '<''Www eztechnologycom/chips htm
AST ALR APPLE/MAC
Acer AT&T Brother
Canon Commodore
Compaq Epson DTK
Dell Digital Everex
Fujitsu Gateway 2000
Hewlwtt Packard IBM
Hitachi IBM/Uexmark
Kyrocera Micron NCR
Motorola Okidata
Packard Bell Panasonic
Pionex Radius Samsung |
Sharp Silicon Graphics
Sun Tandy Tektronix
Texas Instraments Umax I
Toshiba Winbook Zenith |
And Many More I
MEMORY & PRINTERS
♦ SIMMS ♦ NOTEBOOK MEMORY PRINTERS
1MB 30 pin
S15
SMB CPQ1100
4MB 30 pin
S36
16MB CPQ4100
16MB 30 pin
S145
16MB IBM 760E/ED
4MB 72 pin
$19
32MB IBM 755C
8MB 72 pin
$38
16MB TOSHIBA 710
16MB 72 pin
$75
32MB TOSHIBA 500
32MB 72 pin
$150
16MB DELL XPI
64MB 72 pin
$425
32MB DELL LMP
CPU
16MB HP 4000
CALL
32MB HP 5000
WE SPECIALIZE IN NOTEBOOK MEMORY
entech
1-800-808-6242
4551 San Fernarxki Road
Plioiw; BIS 244 62« • Fii: 118 500 7S99 CA 91204
http://www.erltech.com email; entechOsprynet com
CIRCLE 871 ON READER SERVICE CARO
HARDWARE SOLUTIONS
CD Tower & Jukebox Servers
for All Operating Systems
•Plextor 4X. 6X. 8X. Pioneer iax, NEC ax
•Axis 850 CD4I0M sener (RISK Processor)
tor Novell, NT. WIN 95. UNIX(NFS)
•Unlimited user license
•Entire lower appears as a single drive letter
•Compiete lut to netvnrk your
•Prolessional CD-ROM recording kits available
Adt M Mr bi if lAB pndKb
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1.800.482.1866
http://www.Jescdroin.C0M
CIRCLE S74 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Make Money
Building & Upgrading PCs
Become a PC technician in a
couple of days, not weeks.
Amazing intensive fast paced
course is based on clear easy
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• Professional Repair Kit
• Workbook
• Electronic Computer Glossary
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- Entire Course Only *159 -
ALSO AVAILMLE ON CD
PC Learning Series
40 New Plant Road
Owings Mills, MD 21117
1-800-659-8070
CIRCLE 879 ON READER SERVICE CARD
434 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25.1997
MARKETPLACE SHOPPERS HAVE THE
CONFIDENCE AND CDMPUTER SAVVY TD
PURCHASE DIRECT FRDM YDUR AD. SIX
OUT OF TEN BOUGHT FROM MARKETPLACE
ADS IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS.
■ 53% BOUGHT HARDWARE.
■ 44% BOUGHT SOFTWARE.
■ 39% BOUGHT SUPPLIES OR SERVICES.
Copyrighted material
INPUT/DATA/ ACQUISITION/BARCODE/POS
BarCoc
Labeling Software ^
For LaserJet DeskJet etc. *
leHc
eadquarters
Portable Bar Code Readers
for IBM. Macintosh, and
1 /
— T N 1
Serial Interlace Computers
12345 67890"
I Any Format, Any Label. WYSIWYG Design
■ Formats for Sears, K-Mart, Penney's,
WalMart, TCIF, Logmars, EIA, AIAG, etc.
I Prints Bar Codes: UCC/EAN-128, Code 128,
UPC/EAN, 2 of 5, MSI, Codabar, Code 39
I Simple Custom Operator Interface
I LabelRIGHT“ for Windows™ -S295
iLabelRIGHT'“forD0S-S279
Bar Code Fonts for Windows"
I Insert bar codes into any font based
Windows program by Clipboard or Hot Key.
I Prints UPC/EAN, UCC-128, Code 128,
Codabar, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5
■ For dot-matrix and laser printers - S199
Bar Code Readers
for PC, XT. AT, PS/2. Mac
and RS-232 Terminals
I Attaches as Second Keyboard
I UPC/EAN, Code 128, 2 of 5, MSI, Code 39
I Wand, Magstripe, CCD, Slot Badge or Laser
I Top Rated by Independent Reviews
I Complete Reader with Wand only -S299
I Cordless "Laser-Like" CCD Scanner -S599
I Complete Integrated Laser Scanner- $649
I Battery Operated Reader — 64K or 256K
I Kybd or Serial Intf.
I Display messages
& voice messages
prompt operator.
I Pick lists, tables.
I Wand, CCD or
Laser Scanner
I UPC/EAN, 128, 2of5,
MSI, Code 39, etc.
I Very Easy to Create
Custom Prompts
I Small Size-Weighs only 12.5 oz.
1 64K Complete with Wand & Voice - $759
1 64K unit with Integrated Laser- $1299 New I
Radio Frequency Terminal
■ Covers 1,000,000 Sq. Feet
■ 1-16 Terminals/Base
■ Controlled by any
Program that Reads and
Writes to Serial Port
■ Voice Messages Too!
I Bar Code Input by
Wand, Laser or CCD
1 6.3" X 3.3" X 1.25", 14 oz.
■ Base Station -$845
■ Complete Terminal with
Wand Scanner -$1215
■ With Integrated Laser
Scanner -$1790 New
We're not Just a Dealer!
We're the Manufacturer, so you get:
- Better pre-sale Advice
- Better post-sale Support
- Same Day repairs when needed
Full Selection of Solutions
- From Simple wedge to Portable Batch
to RF Wireless plus Bar Code Software
Ordering is Easy! 80(
■ Made in the USA ■"800" Tech Support b 30 Day $ Back Guarantee
■ Qualified P.O’s Accepted ■ 2 Year Warranty on Readers
■ Direct from the Manufacturer DATA SOLUTIONS
800-345-4220
Call For Free ‘
^ Catalog And
► Bar Code ^
Primer! _
Europe Ptione; 1353) 1 6614 566 • Europe Hx: (353) 1 6614 622 USA Phone: 406-456-9938 • USA Fax; 406-456-9964
barcofdins
windovti^
bar cod# fonts
|S1T9 ^
wand roadof
$295 ^
vt -VI '5$ '•$.■■■§ tfaaar
nf •> At CCe 1 •n-'V't
aV'-t't lyw<«>ai%
Can lor ms kilormatlan
512 ^ 19.7768
Fax: 512.219.7769
sales@riversedge.com
http://www.riversedge.com
rfeedge
CIRCLE S77 ON READER SERVICE CARO
P0RTABLE
P R '9 ducts
YOUR COMPLETE SOURCE FOR
BAR CODE AND HANDHELD
DATA COaECnON SYSTEMS
Appication n
’ Pr«it«ts. Verlfim. Ubef Software LaOeK.
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FRU UNUMITID 400 TtCN SUPPORT
UNCONOmONAL SJUISFACTION CUARANTH
CAU FOR FREE CATALOG
1-800-849-0958
httpy Zwww.portableproducts.com
Ijgllliljm
CIRCLE 570 ON READER SERVICE CARO
BAR CODE
PSC Quick Scan lasei wAeytioard wedge reader
$419
2.8* CCD wilt) builMn
Keyboard wedge reader
$219
Portable data collector
• 128KRAM (expand to 256K)
•4 X 20 LCD. Alpba-numerlc keypad
•Real-time clock lor ^^^^$599
time stamp ^ '
•Uploads mrougrt
RS-232 or keyboard
•PC based program generator
\ • 30 day money back guarantee \
■ • Free phone support •
" • Please call lor a tree catalog ■
" • Dealer's discount available *
•a 800-765-2271
/iJiS-lntelligciil Baixodc Systems
16031 Kaplan Ave.. Cily ol Industry. CA 91744
I: (818)968-6265 • Fax: (818)968-5527
Iniernel: http://www.barcodesystems.com
CmCLE 579 ON READER SERVICE CARD
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 436
CLASSIFIED
CLASSIFIED
INPUT/DATA/ ACQUISmON/BARCODE/POS
f
\
Laser Packages
• Including decoder i cables
• Extremely last and accurate
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Label Design Software
• Full range of bar code capablllbes
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EaHlMfirafmEalilill
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DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME
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2190 Regal Paricway * Euless, Texas 76040
c4NMa/t. Inc
For A Complete Product Listing,
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Decoders tnm $99
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Freeman Software
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http://www.eden.com/-freeman
436 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
INPUT/DATA/ ACQUISmON/BARCODE/POS
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CIRCLE 5M ON READER SERVICE CARO
MARCH 25. 1W7 PC MAGAZINE 437
PC MAGAZINE MARKETPUCE
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CIRCLE S90 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Earn thousands of dobrs inonihly wih jiou A6E Answer a
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CIRCLE $91 ON READER SERVICE CARD
438 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25.1997
Dispatch. Mapping,
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m
CIRCLE $95 ON READER SERVICE CARD
CIRCLE 593 ON READER SERVICE CARO
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CIRCLE 596 ON READER SERVICE CARO
GLOBAL
11 Harbor Park Dr. Dept. PCMl
Port Washington, NY IIO.SO
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CIRCLE 628 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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CIRCLE 594 ON READER SERVICE CARD
COMMUNICATIONS - SECURITY
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To gain access to the worid of
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CIRCLE 596 ON READER SERVICE CARO
1 - 800 - 223-4277
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ALADDIN
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visit our Web Site at http://www.jslinc.com for a complete listing
and current prices — Call for Quantity and MOLP Discounts
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Windows NT Training Kit $ 137
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Wmdows NT 4.0 Server w 10 Ctient Access $1039
Windows NT 4.0 • 20 Client Access LJcense $609
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Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (C0| $294
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Upgrade to NT 4.0 Workstation from NT 3 jc $135
Ivxtyiitivi:
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Dtskeeper for NT Workstation
Diskeeper for NT Server
Backup Exec NT Workstation 5.01 (3.5) $219
Backup Exec NT Single Server 6.1(3.51 $428
Teicom Fax 3.0 Single $159
Tekoffl Fax 3.0 Client Sii^ $69
Teicom Fax 3.0 Client 10 Pack $499
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ji^SOFTWAREj^
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MARCH IS. I9V7 P(' MAGAZINE 439
CLASSIFIED
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y Prevents urtauthorized use & dupticatiort
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y 100% guaran t eed to aaUefyl
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CIRCLE 600 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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CIRCLE 605 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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CHAIKEN SYSTEMS
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CMCLE 602 ON READER SERVICE CARO CIRCLE 604 ON READER SERVICE CARO
440 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
CIRCLE 807 ON READER SERVICE CARO
DATA CONVERSION/DATA RECOVERY - SOFTWARE DUPLICATION
Data Recovery
when I.T. matters...
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CIRCLE 616 ON READER SERVICE CARO
EGO Electronics, Inc.
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CStCLE 606 ON READER SERVICE CARD
AMERICA S LEADERS IN DATA CONVERSION
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After Hours
PRODUCTS FOR THE LEISURE SIDE OF PERSONAL COMPUTING
Devilishly Good
Blizzard’s latest masterpiece sends players
into the dark depths of the underworld.
Diablo
A s you descend into the
labyrinth below the defiled
cathedral, you feel the eyes
of countless twisted creatures
on you. If you are to rid the
land of the dark evil that
plagues it. you must wade
through hosts of foul beings to
confront and defeat their mas-
ter — the demon named Diablo.
This is the backdrop for
one of the most eagerly antici-
pated games of the year. Dia-
blo is a phenomenal action
game for Windows 95 that of-
fers a dose of role playing,
spectacular graphics, excellent
multiplayer capabilities, and
endless replay value.
Basically, Diablo is a game
of hack and slash, with your
character doing the majority
of both (you hope). You
begin the game as either a
fighter, mage, or thief, each of
which has advantages and
disadvantages.
You then enter the town of
Tristram. Here you’ll find the
blacksmith and the healer, for
example, but if you explore
the town’s surroundings you’ll
find other helpful people. This
is a place to rest, get informa-
tion, and buy weapons, po-
tions, and spells.
Gear in hand, you enter the
cathedral. The dungeons
below the old church contain
monsters and magic, treasure
and traps. In all, you’ll have to
fight your way through more
than 15 levels of this labyrinth.
And each time you begin
a new game, the levels are
randomly generated, so
no two games are alike.
Diablo revolves around
the main quest of defeating
the title demon, but along
the way you’ll learn of
other quests — which also
change with each new
game.
The action is simple:
Click your mouse where you
want your character to go and
he obeys. Any items that you
can interact with — such as
monsters, doors, barrels, and
fountains — will be highlight-
ed. If you click on them, your
character will attack, open,
break, or use them (whichever
is appropriate).
On the first level, Diablo is
relatively easy. But as you
move deeper into the game,
you’ll face monsters far more
dangerous in far greater num-
bers. As your character moves
through the game, however,
he grows more powerful, so by
the time you reach the end,
you always have a fighting
DIABLO
'k'kifir'k SS4.9S list Blizzard Entertainmsnt B00-9S3>7669,
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chance to win. (It doesn’t hurt
to save the game often,
though.)
The game’s Super VGA
graphics are stunning. Your
character and the creatures you
encounter are fully rendered
and animated, as are the many
magic spells. The attention to
detail in this game is amazing,
and it’s increasingly noticeable
the farther you progress.
Diablo is an outstanding
single-player game, but it is
even more fun when played
with other people. It supports
two-player games over
modem links, and four-player
games over IPX networks or
the Internet using Blizzard’s
free gaming service battle.net.
Though the performance over
battle.net was occasionally
sluggish, we were impressed
with the service’s slick in-
terface and the coopera-
tive on-line game play.
Combine these factors,
and you have one of the
most impressive games
we’ve ever seen. If you’re
looking for the best, most
addictive action game
around. Diablo is for
you . — Michael E. Ryan
IN 1
AFTER
HOURS
Davilishly Good
Quick Clips
..454
Diablo
449
Dream Designs Made Easy
One by Land, Two by Sea
Barbie Fashion Designer
..460
Lords of the Realm II
450
Time to Trade Some Feint
Age of Sail
450
NASCAR Racing 2
..460
Admiral: Sea Battles
450
15 Years of Gaming
..463
MARCH 2S. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 449
■tod m£-'ial
After Hours
One by Land, Two by Sea
Two more top-notch strategy games to
strategic model, providing all
the tools an aspiring monarch
needs to claim a throne. —
Shane Mooney
Age Of Sail
R eal time is all the rage
these days in strategy
gaming, but we’ve seen
few titles that use real-time ac-
tion to provide a rich gaming
experience while at the same
time actually enhancing the
game's realism. That is. until
we saw Age of Sail, the latest
effort from TalonSoft.
Age of Sail is a Win-
dows 3.x or 95 game of
naval combat from
1775 through 1820.
You can play single
scenarios or embark
on a campaign
spanning many
years. In either case,
you control every-
thing for each of your
ships: course, speed, sails,
firing, reloading, and board-
ing. While this may at first
seem overwhelming in large-
scale battles where you eom-
mand 15 or more ships, we
were surprised at how easy it
was to learn. (Winning takes
a bit of practice, however.)
The game boasts a number
of impressive statistics: 100
scenarios (including such mas-
sive engagements as Trafalgar
and Camperdown), campaign
mode for four different coun-
tries (England, France, Spain,
and the United States), and
over 2,000 historically accu-
rate ships. The game also in-
cludes a top-notch scenario
editor.
But Age of Sail has more to
offer than statistics. The Super
VGA graphics are stunning,
with a staggering attention to
detail — right down to the bat-
tle damage on each ship. Also,
the game play is realistic and
fast-paced. And the cam-
paign mode — a well-
balanced sequence
of random bat-
tles — is excellent.
In fact, this
might even
be the
perfect
game, if not
for a few flaws.
The most annoying is
that the game's introductory
sequence will load before
every mission — until you dis-
able it from the menu. Also,
the computer will occasional-
ly decide that your ship wants
to surrender, whether you
want to or not. Finally, the
game’s outstanding music is
wasted in large battles: It is
recorded in WAV files and is
constantly cut off by the
WAV sound effects.
Hut none of these signifi-
cantly detract from the rich ex-
perience Age of Sail provides.
As far as real-time games are
concerned, this is one of the
very best . — MER
Admiral: Sea Battles
S ome games can simplify
complex subject matter
and get away with it be-
cause they are well designed,
challenging, and fun. Admi-
ral: Sea Battles attempts to
challenge you — and one to avoid.
Lords Of The Realm II
A h, medieval times! The
damsels in distress, the
combat. the
pouring of boiling
oil on your enemies.
Who could ask for
more? Before you
answer that, you
might want to try
managing and de-
fending your own
little kingdom in the
Windows 95 game.
Lords Of The
Realm II.
In Lords II, you’re
one of five nobles
vying for the crown of
merry old England in 1268.
Starting with one humble coun-
ty, you must manage crops,
build a castle, and amass an
army to defeat your opponents.
The game’s turn-based re-
source management portion is
very well designed. The hap-
piness of the general populace
is your primary concern, and
as in real life, that happiness is
affected by taxes, health, and
discouraging events such as
invasions. You can increase
happiness by doubling rations,
distributing ale, and keeping
taxes low. A happy populace
will grow, giving you more
people to tax and draft into
armies. Be careful, though:
Tax too much or draft too
many and you’ll have an ugly
revolt on your hands.
If you like, you can play the
entire game in this mode, let-
ting the computer handle all
the combat, and still come
away very satisfied. But if you
prefer to fight your own battles,
you’ll find the field-combat
mode similar in appearance
and function to that of Bliz-
zard’s Warcraft titles. The com-
bat mode is fun, but it has a few
quirks: You don’t have many
options while commanding in-
dividual combatants, and the
computer’s artificial intelli-
gence is not terribly impressive.
Still, Lords Of The Realm
II is a good game with a decent
real-time engine and a thor-
oughly enjoyable, turn-based
Cop’-r:G?r*d
450 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. IW7
material
As of today, maps are re-defined.
With new Street Atlas USA* 4.0
CD-ROM, you can easily find
individual addresses and ZIP Code
boundaries, add notes and lines,
and measure distances and areas
on incredibly complete, detailed
maps. With an Internet link. Street
Adas USA 4.0 also displays current
information about weather, events,
and road construction right on your
map. To find your current location
just add your
own laptop and
Tripmate.™
Using Global
Positioning
System (GPS)
satellite technology, Tripmate will
track your every turn on detailed
maps. And to explore every twist
and turn of Americas rugged
terrain in 3-D, discover new 3-D
anywhere you go.
Explorer USA? So now you can do
more than print beautiful maps,
perform desktop marketing, and
receive clear directions. You can
turn getting "lost” into a lost art.
I-8(XM52-593I / www.delorme.com
Lat. 43®50.8325’N / Long. 70^06.7525^
[Dictionary of the future, pace 53 1]
lost (lost) adj. [archaic]
1. unable to locate one’s
position, as in, “Help. I
am lost.” 2. having no
sense of direction at all
n.b. became obsolete in
1996 with the introduc-
tion of Street Atlas USA
4.0 and Tripmate.
CiHCLE 022 ON HEADER SERVICE CARD OR GO TO WWW.PCMAG.COWProducILink
i ZIFF-DAVIS
You've got a question about technology products? PC Magazine
Online has the answers. Where? At www.pcmag.com, of course.
So before you buy new technology, make it a point to stop by.
Especially during our 15th birthday celebration, when you might
actually end up winning it for free.
www.pcmag.com
THE
BENCHMARK
For Official Rules and Regulations, please turn to page 454.
■1 No rtmmboai
FROM THE CREATORS OF THE AWARD-WINNING CorelDRAW
"Click & Create is without a doubt "Occasionally a product comes
at the cutting edge of multimedia along that redefines a software
authoring." category. Corel Click b Create is
Muhi Media-The Magazine. ^ product.
September, 1 996 "We were wowed by Click & Create.
This revolutionary tool breaks down
the wall between programmers and
“ ' ■ content creators, and it opens up the
multimedia and game development
process to anyone with a bit of
creativity."
PC Magazine,
Octobers, 1996
"Click & Create presents one of the
most understandable authoring
environments I've seen."
"Advanced features will please
trained multimedia designers, and
the short learning period opens this
software to new users, including
graphic artists, educators and "Verdict: The easiest way to make
managers." simple multimedia creations."
^ InfoWorld,
August 5, 1 996 PC Computing,
October 1996
P Multimedia applications
and games
^ Corporate presentations
^ Interactive training guides
[Off Kiosks
^ Digital publications
N Screensavers
CompeUlive upgrade
CD-ROM version
Fbll CD-ROM version
For Windows' 95, Windows NT',
Windows' 3.1x and Macintosh' Runtime
After Hours
Game play in Admiral is
straightforward, as you move
your ships around a nicely de-
tailed grid. The graphics are
decent, and the game's ren-
dered cinematic sequences are
pretty nice. And we
liked the idea behind
the scenarios, which
combine sea and land
operations.
The problem here is
that Admiral’s promise
was only skin-deep:
The first, last, and all
other scenarios are
ridiculously difficult
and not much fun to
play. Also, the inter-
face is confusing, and
the documentation is
sparse at best.
If you're looking for an en-
joyable game in this genre, we
recommend Age of Sail
or Wooden Ships & Iron Men.
—MER
be one of these titles but fails
miserably.
Instead of the ultrarealistic
feel of Age of Sail, Admiral
gives players a simplified taste
of naval combat from the same
era. The simple approach is
often best, and we had high
hopes for Admiral, But when
we played this Windows 95
game, we quickly lost heart.
Things started out well.
QUICK CLIPS
^ lempest2000
Remember that frenetic vector-graphics arcade game
that made Pac-Man look so mellow? Well, it*s back with a
slightly new look and a whole slew of new levels. Spin your
way around a host of wild arenas as you try to shoot down
those evil polygon creatures. Lots of fun — a good alterna-
tive to Solitaire, too. $39.95 list; Interplay Productions, 800-
468-3775.
^ Bill Nya the Science Buy. stop the Rock!
An interactive science adventure that the whole
family can enjoy, this CD-ROM (developed by Pacific In-
teractive) challenges players to prevent a meteoroid from
hitting the Earth. Lots of experiments and lots of live-action
video footage of the Science Guy himself help make this
title interesting and fun. $40 street; Disney Interactive, 800-
688-1520.
SoulTrap
Touted as a breakthrough in 3-D gaming, this inter-
esting title is pretty to look at but difficult to control and
not very much fun to play. In the age of Quake and Tomb
Raider, this one just doesn’t measure up. $44.95 list; Micro-
forum, Inc. 800-685-3863.
Try your hand at trivia, and enter to win in our isth anniversary celebration.
www.pcTnag.com
OFFICIAL RULES i. No purchase necessary or requested, a. To enter, return the Official Entry Form on PC Magazine Online. Only fully completed
Official Entry Forms will be accepted from online entries. Those who cannot access PC Magazine Online may enter by writing your name, title, com-
pany, address and daytime telephone number on a plain piece of 3x5 paper and mailing it in an envelope to: Lynn Hazel. PC Magazine, One Park
Avenue. New York, NY. 10016. No facsimile entry permitted. One entry per person, j. Sweepstakes begins February 28. 1997. Your entry must be sub-
mitted online or postmarked no later than March 28. 1997 and received in the mail no later than April 7, 1997 Drawing will be held by April 15, 1997,
Winners will be selected In a random drawing from among all entries received under the supervision of the publisher, whose decision will be final.
The odds of winning depend on the number of entries received by the date given on the official rules and submitted in accordance with the rules.
Winners will be notified by mail. Ziff-Davis svill arrange for delivery of all prizes. Any prize notification or prize returned to Ziff-Davis as undeliv-
erable will result in awarding that prize to an alternate winner. Where permitted, acceptance of a prize constitutes consent to use of winners
name and likeness in any manner by Ziff-Davis and its advertising and promotion agencies without further compensation. 4. Sweepstakes is open
to residents of the United States, its territories and possessions, who are eighteen or over, except employees and their immediate families of Ziff-
Davis. its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies. All submissions become the property of Ziff-Davis. All federal, state and local
laws and regulations apply. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. All federal, state and local taxes are the responsibility of the winners. A
1099 form will be filed with the IRS for major prize winners. 5. One Grand Prize: One Zenith Performancei66x Desktop System, valued at S2549.00.
Fifteen Second Prizes: One Communicate! All-In-One Fax, Voice. Data. E-Mail & Contact Management Software Package, valued at S139.00 each.
6 . Winners may be required to submit a signed affidavit certifying that they are eligible to enter the sweepstakes. The affidavit must be signed
and returned within 15 days of attempted notification, failure to return a properly completed affidavit within this period will result in selection
i of an alternate winner. Winner may make no substitution or transfer of prize. Ziff-Davis reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater
value. 7. Neither Ziff-Davis nor its affiliates, subsidiaries, division, or related companies are responsible or liable for any damages, taxes, expenses,
losses or injuries resulting from winners acceptance or use of any prize. Not responsible for lost, misdirected or late entries, computer malfunc-
tions. online failures, technical malfunctions or disturbances or other circumstances affecting receipt of entries or operation of the sweepstakes.
Not responsible or liable for any warranty, representation, or guarantee either express or Implied on any prize awarded. Including, but not limited
to its quality, mechanical condition or fitness Acceptance of a prize constitutes a release of Ziff-Davis and its affiliates by winners from all respon-
sibility or liability with respect to the operation of the prizes (including property loss, damage, personal injury or death), t. Prize winners list will
be available within 30 days after date of drawing. For the winners names, please send a stamped, self-address envelope by April 30, 1997 to; Lynn
Hazel, PC Magazine, One Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. All prizes guaranteed to be awarded.
454 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Copyrighted material
Fult your mode^r^ ^
wke-re. vouy ,
your moutf\ is
answers /A^. / s«^e^ ^
docun\e^t H^La.
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Copyrighted mo;:
After Hours
Dream Designs Made Easy
Dress up your Barbie using one of the
year’s hottest-selling titles.
BARBIE FASHION DESIGNER
ir $44.99 list Mattal Media, 888-62I-8S59,
www.mattelmedia.com.
V
Barbie Fashion Designer
B arbie Fashion Designer
was the best-selling soft-
ware during the 1996 holi-
day season. And with good
reason. One of the first suc-
cessful software packages de-
signed specifically for girls, the
Fashion Designer CD-ROM
makes it easy for your budding
Donna Karan to become a
couturier to her own dolls.
Using this software and a
printer, children — with a little
help from an adult — can de-
sign their own Barbie outfits.
Once completed, the ensem-
bles can be printed out on spe-
cial “sticky-backed" fabric
that can be put on a doll and
decorated with sequins, paint
and appliques.
The program features a sim-
ple interface and perky narra-
tion that will get kids designing
in no time. Kids are given six
clothing themes to choose
from: Totally Trendy, Dream
Date, Party Surprise, Vacation
Fun, Cool Careers, and Wed-
ding Fantasy, Each theme in-
cludes several pieces of cloth-
ing that children can add to
their perfect outfits. Every arti-
cle of clothing can be personal-
ized, mixed, and matched.
Once your child has decided
on an item of clothing
and clicked on it.
Barbie will sport the
apparel. After an
outfit is complete,
children can further
personalize by add-
ing patterns, colors,
and accessories.
Even cooler, kids
can preview their
creations in Barbie’s
dressing room and watch Bar-
bie saunter down a 3-D run-
way wearing their designs.
Most children will probably
spend the majority of their time
coloring, painting, and cus-
tomizing outfits after they’ve
been printed — and of course
dressing their dolls.
Although the program is a
great tool for young designers,
we have to stress that it is just a
tool. The real imagination and
fun will take place after they
turn off the computer. The
process of creating a Fashion
Designer pattern can take only
a few minutes, and once the
NASCAR Racing 2
M ASCAR Racing 2, the lat-
est offering from Papyrus
and Sierra On-Line,
brings the thrill of champi-
onship racing realism to your
PC. Like its predecessor,
NASCAR 2 is fun, realistic,
and challenging.
Jump right into the action
with the “quick race" option,
printer has done its work, your
children will probably get dis-
tracted by their dolls.
When you run out of fabric
paper or the proprietary art
select from one of 16 authen-
tic NASCAR racetracks and
set such options as weather
conditions, race length, and
number of opponents. You
can also choose between ar-
cade and simulation modes.
For a full-blown Race
Weekend, you first need to go
out for a few test laps. Once
you see how your car behaves,
you can adjust the gear ratio,
spoiler angle, tire pressure,
and other factors. Then
you’re ready to qualify for
and take part in the big race.
You can also enter a Champi-
onship Season, a series of
races at all 16 tracks.
The game play is smooth
and enjoyable. You can choose
from three perspectives to see
the action: a view from right
supplies, you can restock using
Mattel Media’s Fashion De-
signer Refill Kit ($9.99 list),
which includes additional de-
signs . — Karen Bannan
behind the steering wheel, an
overhead view from the rear of
the car, or a wide-angle view of
the track. There is also a VCR
option that lets you view re-
plays from over 300 camera
angles. The sound effects in-
clude squealing tires and ap-
proaching car engines. You
also hear your spotter over the
radio, relaying your position
and those of your opponents.
Aside from the keyboard,
NASCAR 2 supports joystick,
gamepad, and steering-wheel
controls. You can play against
the computer, go head to head
with a buddy via modem or
null-modem cable, or join an
eight-player game over an
IPX network connection.
Whether you follow the
NASCAR racing circuit or just
enjoy racing games, NASCAR
Racing 2 will provide you with
hours of realistic racing enter-
tainment. Go ahead, strap on
your helmet and get ready to
“trade some paint" with the
pros . — John Delaney
NASCAR RACING 2
$49.95 list Sierra On-line,
800-757-7707, www.slerra.eem.
rime to Trade Some Paint
The most realistic racing game around is
back with more options and faster action.
Copyr„‘
460 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Things that are
easy.
Things that are
inexpensive.
Things you can
trust.
Let’s face it... If the product you’re looking
for is easy to use, affordable, and reliable,
there’s a very good chance you’ll buy it.
That’s why we at NETOEAH’” have
one simple goal: to take the work out of
networking. We do that by providing products
that are easy to install, surprisingly
inexpensive, and trustworthy.
You’ll find these qualities in everything
we make — from our Ethernet hubs to switches
to ISDN products. Each of them has been
designed to complement the way you work,
the way your company is connected, and the
way your company will grow. And the best
part is that they’re backed by Bay Networks,
an industry leader in networking for more
than a decade.
So if you’re looking for the right
networking gear, there’s really only one
company you should connect with.
NETGEAR. Networking simplified.
1-888-NETOEAB
httpi// JgW> Aa.b «3 nw t wo rfc i.oom/lMW
For reseller information, please call
Ingram Micro at 1-600*466-6000.
COMPUSA NETGEAR
hflkaenmmty9aall‘U0‘2i6-/in A Bay Networks Company Ba/ Networks
Cl 996 NETGEAR. VoMwaesn USA, Inc. « not aflilalvd wWi tnd doM not endorse NETGEAR. NETGEAR is • iredemvk ot Bey Networks, (rK. AN rtgtns reserved.
• Ethernet Hubs
(4. 8, or 16-port)
•Switches (10/100Mbps,
2 or 7-port)
• Fast Ethernet Hubs
(8 or 16-port)
• ISON Internet Routers
CIRCLE 266 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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CnponBon. Al oOw preduct and conpviy
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ol Mr respective compamu
Computer Software a Hardware
1 -800-EGGHEAD
*USS plus applicable tagres
httpi/Avww .corcl.com
Call now tor fned literature!
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Document# t199
:.-d material
Corel Family Tree Master'' is an ideal way to trace your roots and
display and print them professionally in a variety of charts and
reports. Research more than 1 75,000 name histories, track medical
information and addresses, and create family photo albums with
this versatile program. A comprehensive genealogy library contains
over 55 million names and additional references. Photo-editing
capabilities allow you to retouch old photographs, remove red eye
and add dazzling special effects. Plus, with the program ’s Internet
support you can create and publish your family Web page. Reach
back in history with Corel Family Tree Master, a graphically
sophisticated and easy-to-use genealogy program on CD-ROM.
familytree.corel.coin
After Hours
15 Years of Gaming
Fast CPUs are neat and all, but what review
of the PC’s history would be complete with-
out a look at the history of games?
By Michael E. Ryan
Computer games have come a long way
over the past 15 years, marking and help-
ing to further the PC’s evolution. Since
the early days of strangely addictive text-
based adventure games, games have be-
come significantly more impressive in the areas of artificial in-
telligence, graphic detail, sound effects and music, and of course,
minimum system requirements.
The 15 products we’ve chosen here are some of the most pop-
ular and influential titles in PC gaming history.
A Zork (1982): The definitive fantasy
adventure game and the inspiration for
countless others. Infocom’s text -based Zork
captured our imaginations and kept us typ-
ing into the wee hours of many a night.
▼ Where in the World is
Carmen Sandiego? (1985): it was
Sroderbund's first Carmen Sandiego title
that showed us how computer games could
be fun. funny, and educational all at oiKe.
Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982): Originally developed by subLogic for the Apple II.
MKrosoft Flight Simulator helped demonstrate the rxiginal PCs graphics capabilities while at the
same time spawning legions of devoted flight-simulation enthusiasts around the world
Wizardry (1984): Although first released for the Apple II in 1981, Sir-Techs outstanding
fantasy role-playing series. Wizardry, finally came to the PC in 1984.
AUltiina(1986): Origin Systems’
Ultima provided us with a fantasy role-
playing experierKe unlike anything we had
ever seen before.
age it well. Maxis's game of urban development stands up
as or>e of the most en)oyabie games ever.
Falcon 1.0(1991): Spectrum Holobyte’s classic jet-
combat simulation offered great graphics for its day. real-
istic flight modeling, dynamic campaign play, and multi-
player support-quite a combination.
Sid Meier’s Ovilization (1992): Possibly the
greatest computer game of all time. MicroProse's strategy
masterpiece gave players the opportunity to rule their
own kingdoms in any way they saw fit.
▼ DOOM (1993): With DOOM, id
Softvrare opened the floodgates for first-
person action shoot-'em-ups.
◄ Wing
Commander (1990):
The reason many of us
bought our first VGA
cards. Ortgm Systems'
spectacular cinematic
space adventure left little
doubt among Macintosh
and Amiga users; The PC
was now the game pick-
er's platform of choice.
Populous (1989): The quintessential god game.
Bullfrog's Populous not only gave you absolute
power over a bunch of tiny beings but also marked
one of the earliest appearances of real-time strate-
gy gaming.
◄ Myst (1994): The
graphic adventure that
shook the world.
Broderbund's Myst chal-
lenged the hard-core
game players while help-
ing to open the arcane
world of computer gam-
ing to the rest of us.
A Quake (1996): just when we thoi^t it was
save to go back on the LAN. id Software came back
at us with this revolutionary, frenetic shoot-’em-up.
King’s Quest
Quest for the
Crown (1984): Would
you believe that IBM
commissioned this Sierra
On-Une title to show off
the hot new PQr?
Thankfully the game sur-
vived its first platform,
and this series of graphi-
cal adventure games con-
tinues to this d^.
'4 Maniac
Mansion (1988):
LucasArts made gaming
history with Maniac
Mansiwi. the first adven-
ture game to implement
a point -and-click inter-
face.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 463
Copyrighted material
mtroducing . . . '*
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Advertisers’ Index
COMPANIES
Reader
Service
No. Adverlicer Page
134 01 Communique . S21 9
* 3 Com Corporation U>68
235 AMSTect) .41 d
101 ATI Technologies. . ..SM
* ABIT Computer Corp 293
* ABIT Computer Corp 313
* ABIT Computer Corp 324
* Adaptec S3
* Adaptec. 2S2
400 Adaptiv.. 282
274 Adobe Systems Inc 273
020 Adobe Systems Inc .2H-29S
071 Allegro New Media 271
342 American Power Conversion 2S4A‘2fl5 9
125 American Power Conversion 456-459 9
336 Arlington Computer Products 480 9
* Asuslek Computer Corp 297
215 Banner Blue Software 294 9
347 Banner Blue Software 318 9
698 BayNetworks. Inc HE15-NE17 9
186 BayNetworks. Inc 350 9
049 Bell Attantic 229
351 Broderbund Software 448
292 Caere Corporabon 8 9
083 Central Data Coporation 31 9 9
* Chrysler Corporation 97
901 Cisco Systems. Inc NE9
* Compaq Computer Corporation 74-75
* Compaq Computer Corporation 132-133
* Compaq Computer Corporation .290-299
* CompUSA Direct 395-398
316 COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE 352-363 9
159 COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE 354-355 9
109 COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE 396-357 9
360 COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE 366-389 9
362 Corel Corporation 32 9
042 Corel Corporation 174 9
Oil Corel Corporation 2919
322 Corel Corporation 234 9
207 Corel Corporation 250 9
258 Corel Corporation 300 9
358 Corel Corporation 334 9
037 Corel Corporation 453 9
044 Corel Corporation 462 9
103 Corel Corporation 464 9
343 CyberMa* Computer 206-299 9
372 DTK Computer 267 9
* DataExpert Corp 330-331
* Dell Computer Corporation C6-C6
* Dell Computer Corporation 34-35
* Dell Computer Corporation 72
* Dell Computer Corporation 223
* Dell Computer Corporation 314
022 Delorme Mapping 451 9
255 Detlec... ...276
* Digital Equipment Corp 212
240 ESRI 357 9
256 EXP Computer 312 9
225 Earthlink 351 9
896 Eicon Techonology NE19 9
* EIZO NANAO Technologies. Inc 187
004 Epson America .12-13
213 Executive Software ....265
* EzKey Corporation 320
* First Internahonal Computer 361
014 First Source International 360-361
089 FOSA Computer.. ...369
114 Fujitsu PC Corporation 56-57 9
224 Fujitsu PC Corporation 58-59 9
027 Gandatf Technologies - 277
Gateway 2000 46A-49
018 Genius Kye International Corp 266
* GigaByta 296
1 13 Hansol Corporation 246
062 HARTFORD COMPUTER GROUP 374-375 9
126 Hayes Microcomputer Products 180
Reader
Service
No
Advertiser
Pege
455
Helix Software Co
264 9
Hewlett Packard-Cokirado Memory Systems..
161 9
Hewlett Packard-Cokirado Memory Systems...
293 9
249-241
20
92
173
399-391 9
56
Iomega Corporation
171
2»
225 9
392-393
269
331
Lotus Development Corporation
22-23
18-19 9
. .244
Markham Computer Corporation
...323
Markham Computer Corporation
.325
2539
.399
Micro Solutions Computer Products
461 9
372-373 9
71
245 9
NE2-ME3 9
15 9
16-17 9
.66 9
...115-129 9
121 9
153-156 9
NE1S
C2-C4
2-3
31
Microsoft - — .
166
168
269*261
263
371 9
405 9
362
345
96-11
126-127
251
NECX...
364 9
461
NE22 9
257 9
25-27
327
NE10
179
1559
96-07 9
NE6
492-493
94 9
.66 9
366-366
313 9
384-365 9
306-367 9
276
.265
Philips Electronics
Ill
Reader
Service
No. Adverllier Page
220 Philips Electronics 137
015 Philips Electronics 193
270 Pinnacle Micro 219 9
354 Polywell 233
346 Premio Computers. Inc 88 9
287 ProGen Systems..- - - 11 9
132 Proxima 256
' QMS .. HE6
* QMS ...348
074 Quantex - 139-141
007 Rainbow Technologies 346 9
301 Recompute 266
205 Ricoh Corporation 344
309 S.A.GiStorage Solutions 62-63
043 SPSS. Inc 487
247 STB Systems 242
871 Seagate Software NE7
271 Seagate Technologies M612
* Shinho Electronics 266-269
055 Shuttle Computer Group 347
030 Smith Micro Software. Inc 2tl
352 Softbank Expos 226
• Sony Computer Peripherals 36-39
• Sony Computer Products - 274-275
• Soyo Computer - 262
909 Standard Microsystems Corp NE26
057 StatSoft .43
023 Sun Microsystems 5
• Sun Microsystems 339
• Sun Microsystems 341
060 Sun Microsystems 343
135 Sun Microsystems 353
335 Sun Microsystems 354
308 Symantec Corporation 165
* Taiwan Mycomp. 292
349 Tatung -...-.171-161
174 Techmedia tS6
001 Tektronix Inc 163
069 Tektronix Inc 383
366 Texas Instruments M-99
378 Toshiba America 62 -63
379 Toshiba America 246-247
086 Traveling Softwaie 286
* US Robotics Inc. 44
* US Robotics Inc. 58 61
* US Robobcs Inc. 76 79
052 USA Rex - - 376-379
' USR Mobile Communications Corp 149
‘ USR Mobile Communications Corp 151
• Umax Data Systems 394-367
212 Utobia 328-329
117 ViewSonic 84
118 ViewSonic 342
025 WANG Laboratories, Inc 197
115 Western Digital 61
085 Winbook H
087 Winbook 315
273 Xircom 29
211 Xircom 259
303 ZD Net 486
053 Zenith Data Systems Direct 184-167
397 Zyxel Communicabons 337
*No Reader Service# Please Call Advertiser For More Information.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 465
Advertisers* Index
PRODUCTS
Reader
Service
No. Company
Product
Reader
Service
No.
Company
Product
UCEUUTOR UMOt
NjM^ir^CofflpulwCorp vSo^
fiaWCHAHTIHO SOFTWARE
. Banner Blut Software . frgMus..
. Mtcroorafi . FiowcRart
Page
:==^
. ATI TechnokKMa
. ContralOitaCoporanon. ..
MlmElKAorMs
.STBSysMS.
...Graphics Boards
...SarWPortSolutKiAs ..
GnwhKs Aeoalanior
.VMOlyTO.
. .Amancan Powar CorMrsNW .
American Power Convtrsnn ..
Octopus TtchneiooiiL inc
•ACIUPSOFTWARf
...SmM-UPS ..
. SaekUPSOnice
Octopus - NT Bi
204A-205
SS6-d59
NE10
MnOaCIMUTCRSAATEWArS
BayNetvrarks.lK..... SMW5000
. VUom. VhP
2 S!?SS 8 ^ 252 i'"
. bony compNSar rrooucu .
DWTALCAMCRAS
UfTDFmRTAKE COMPUTERS
Trav^otOt
.3 Com C^ralion .
. Symanlac Corporation
COMPUTER DtSCOUNT WAREHOUSE
COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE .
COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE
466 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Advertisers’ Index
Si
s-
Company
COHtVTER OISCOUtfT WAREHOUSE
Fm Sourn irmnubonai .
Product
LapiDiM
. MtmoiY. NoMooks. Ptnplwali .
Portjtite*
. NoMooki ....
NoMooks, ^ MMI OnMr, PinfMnH...
VWOrMr
HitKhUXSmtNoMooks
TltMtittf .
Hartfucan. SoCMn Sysiam . .. .
. Truisoon
MM RaMKH. Kvijwvi. PCs
^ Ofdar Rtsaktr. Hwhnra. PCs
PRODUCTS
Page
368-3S9
Reader
Service
No.
!13
062
093 .. .
Company
ExKUbve SoRwart
HARTFORD COMPUTER GROUP
Markham Computer Corporabon
Product
Disfeespa .. . .
Mad Orda. .
Nstevp^ Malagas School
Program Product!^
ComboCard
PCModamCad
Page
265
.374-375
--J25
58-59
4SA-49
OracteCorp
USR Mobile Cem.mseications Corp
USR Mobile Com.ntomcalions Corp
.. . 151
MOrtw.
i!?.;
Notabook Compuiars . ,
NcMeoks
X^Pro and FX NoMooks
XP5 Pro afid FX Woaaoo fa
240-241
.371
.405
257
165
310-311
“I
OS
Emn TacAMMdp
GaneaP TsehnginM}
HARTFORD CMinTfER GROUP.
iMilCorporalW . . .
Sugaia Softwart
Suniird McresYSims Corp
NMavtno ProdvcB
Dm
NtNrMing Prediias .. . . .
MMOrM
I OOUbpi ElMmM PC Card Adapars
Ettwntl Hub
. Octopus - NT Sadtue
Nft«wk Pnntan
NMMrtPnrdm
SaaotfaSonwart-SkHG
T«arStaa
EXPCompmaf
Pronma
Sun Mcmysams
CDROMlwPoflabla .
Lightbook NoMnok. . .
CorporM imaoa campa<on
^Uodam
Pra^ Psnpnarm Modem
ISON
USR Mobiia Coin.inunKaiiens Carp
Xpcoffl
, Xaeorn . ...
2vwl CommuMcattorw
CmW Card
KModamCar
ComdoCard .
Bam Bka^oniwa
CompUSA D*ect
Deiorms Maopmg
Matrox Elacfroncs . .
Ucro SoMions CompulM Pr«
Nokia
Number Nine ConwuMr Corp .
ObtM.
SbwtOi Computer Group
Sony ContpiM PerMeraM
.SoTM Coffipulr Preduett
Tecnmedia ,
WANG Laboratories. Inc
Grapncs Boards
FimiN Tree Maker ..
MVlOrM
MLorme Street AUs
>... GraprKS Acceieraior
Micro SoWimBscApick PC/CD. . . .
Nokia Momiort
Graphics AeceNrslor
Echo Nclebooks .
Mottwiboards. Graphic Cards. Speakers
DimCemers . . . .
TKtmctt NoMn
imagmg for Windows
HfTWOfll NTTERFACE CAROI
. . ComOo Card . ..
.. EtfHmet Adapter
JIS.
. Jkrknglon Computer Products . . .. Mad Order. Peripherals 400
' — "SAOuect MadOrdet 395-396
MUNTWAR|MQU$£ Reseder . jB-363
MUNTWARfW^ Resslar 364- S»
»mWAM>$3 Heseaer 366^367
iOUirwAltfHOiS Reseaer . 3S-369
St Source irdemataoiw Mernory Notebooks Penpherals 3B0-361
FOSAConMei Portables S»
GaitwdyTOOO Notebooks. PCs, Mad Order. Peripnerits 46A-49
HSBCompulet PCCucudk^27l |70
irMMDueei insigmMMOrOw 390-391
iX^ride Uerrm .377
MIGAHAUS MauSlom 404
MrcroMaiTHCo Memory. mPCiA. Hard Orfves 399
MKtonoi USA Micrenfa USA
M«wesiC«npuMr Works . Mad Order. RtsaBsr. Harthewe. PCs
Midwtsi CMpmtr Works Mad Ordar, Rsaadar. Hardware. PCs
NEQt . . PCs. Penpwils. SoNwtrs 3|4
NoeMoekComawUts - K7
PCs. Penphenib. Softwin 400-403
••sdOrder 3i0-31i
-jdO^ 3«-309
PCs CorrvMi PCs Notebooks SoRm 3»-57
Ouaraas Sytlams iS-t4i
USAFNi Iwtiti ^ . PCs Parmharats Pnntsts 376-379
Wnbdok X^breMdWNotiibeoka 3i$
WnbOOk . XPS Pm Md FX NoWbeata . 77
2endh Data SyttMns Owed . . PCs 104-107
kUPPIHB SOFTWARE
Datorms Msppuig Osiorme Sbeil Atlas 451
ESRI . ArtVtew kiiemel Map Sarear 357
■ABB ITORASC
iNoadirmiwI riSHnOnManiiniiMni Tine nn»eii . 16I
ianiat>a»fl-Cti&aaoMsttioiy§*rra HPSoreSiore CD-Wraar 203
lomepa Corporation M 171
lomaiB Corporabori . pAo 255
MeSwauS Mass Storage . 404
Moo SoMone Compulr Products Micro SoWnns Backpack PC^ ... ,401
Sca^ Technotogas . . OocWiard .. NE12
MEMORY
Fnt Source Memahonal . Memory. Notebooks. Penpherati 300-361
. KdiOtlon TachnoloOy — Kumion losh«a memory sd 2<S
. lATrade .... Momoiy 377
Man MaRW Co Mamory PCMCIA Hard OruMS 399
Moon Eacbones Moon Memory uppradea IS
312
. 451
:: ^
2D Nr
OPTKAl PCMERAlt
taakRPidaACakndDMmiiySyiina HP SweStore CO-Wmor ..
Okytnpui Imapt Sysams. Me . Oymous OMaf Camera
PlNkpeEacbontcs PrMps iCD^oaeior
PitaMEiecbomcs Mio
Phnw Eiedromu . . Monitors .
PimacN Moo Opbcil Dnwes
Banmr BkN Software
Mooaefl
MoosoR
UcroeoR
Mooeoh
0RGAMI2AT1OIUU. SOFTWARE
PC ACentORKS
Ifttelldnouse
Ligtitbook Nottbook
Arknatan Computer Products
' — "SADncl
TER DtSCOUNT WAREHOUEE
COMPUTER DtSCOUNT WAREHOUSE
. COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE
COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOU^
Fnl Source Inirnational
. nartfitDi
UATfldi
Leu Frog Labs
SiGA^
Moo Warthousi
MidnasI ConawNr Works
Midiwsi Corrvukr Works
NECX ....
PCConnocMfl . .
PC Zona
PCsCofflpWil
KsComolaal
PCsCompaii
SF>SS^inc
USAEtoi . .
ReseMr . .
Reseder
Mem^. Notebooks. Ponphorats
PortabNs ....
MadOrdar . ..
MksoM Mad Order
Memon ...
Evew Step Premar. Enorex P100 —
MktsSlOM
Menton KNKIA. Had Drives
Moo Sohrtions SacSrack PGU
Hardware Sofhare. Sysants
Man Orda. Reseda. Kardwwe. PCs
Mai Orda. Reseda. Harawara. PCs
PCs. Notebooks. SoRwara
PCs.Noabeoks.SolTware . .
PCs. Notebooks. Soflwars
SPSS 7 5 tor Windows
Noabooks. PCs. PersMraa. Pnaers
MooMall/HCo
USRobobcsMc
. Robobes Me ..
Manory. PCMCIA. Had Drwes.
Video
X2 Technolooy ....
ISON,.
ComboCard . ..
EncrrMAdapia
BNAMMG OEWCE
PCs Paipnerats. Si
Netwom Prrters
Gateway I
Moona .
Moosofl
Souret hdaiabonei
CornpiiMr .
way 2000
PERtPHERAlt
PCAd^rCads.
Epson Pnnta
Manory. NotMooks. Paiphsraa
PC Cetud Bgatt
Noaboo k s PCs. Mad Orda Psripheraa
. Moons USA
. Otympus Image Sysams. Inc
. pumps Etectronics .
PUMPS Eactronia
. . Electronics .
SitutM Computa Group
STBSyskims
Okidta 0P4W Prnar
Olympus Onw Camere
Phinps LCO Protector
rk PrMai
.-..^rboerds. Graptuc Cards Speikers
VetocdySO
GtiphKS 6 Imagmg PrMas
Gra^ Pnoting and imag«g
Ulm MorWors
Vdwsonci PT775 Mondort
PCs
POWER PROTECTIIM
SmaiUPS
BackuPSOflw
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PC Powa 6 Cooling Powa ProactxinCookng Oemcci
.PC Powa & Coodng .. Powa ProtecMnCoohiig Dmess . .
■' * Oob-UPS
Corel Corporation
Corel CorooreDon
. Corel CerpertMn
. Corel Corporation
Cora Corporation
. Cora Corjnrabon
Cora CorporatWA
PREIENTATIDN SOFTWARE
CoraVidM
Lumwri
Vmiura !
PRINTER ACCESSORIES
NerwortPi
Network Pi
Epson Amanca
Lexmark Inamabona
NEC Te en nowgas
Okidata
QMS
QMS
, Taktrons MC
.. .Tektrons Me. . .
USAFlax . .
. Epson Pnnia
Jltptmla
MEc amlas ,
OudataOPdWPnma
m^rars. Praters
400
395-396
362-3S3
364- 386
38S-3S7
365- 3S9
380-3S1
3S9
3S6-3S7
407
37B-379
26-27
.. .179
. 96-97
32S-329
84
104-107
. 3^
378-379
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 467
Reader
Service
No.
Advertisers’ Index
PRODUCTS
Company
Product
Page
REMOn COMfUTHM
Eicon Techonology. CNvt
McAlee Assocutes. lac VnisScan
Travshng Software LapUf* tor WMom 'W_.
OSRoOolicainc ..
US RoMtics Inc .. . UTkIi
US Rotoiics inc ISON ...
iSS
SCANNERS
New Scut Maker E6 ...
...RMNew Ttdtnouo«s
ftambow Senbnel Software Protociion-..
CoiiMig ContRulM CononiMA...
. . .MCentoNtorCorpeiiMn . ...
Del CoBRNtof Cwpcr i Neit
M CenRMtor CtfRorMM
OMCOTMNrCOfMnRon
M Cenvirtor CorponlPii .
ESRI
.. .MiConoraaeA
Mkiot ENcnmks
.. .CompaftSenort
Senwt Otskiopa. LaptepL....
. ..AicViaw Internel Has Sew ..
..AS/400
VetowSiOMPro
..tAmaon-SOlSaw
Proyam DevitopOT
SawiandSto^
AdapNv
. .Adobe Systoms inc
AligroNnMMa
. ...Baniw Btoe Softewa....
tanneiltoaSoftwe....
...BiodartundSaftiNro .
.. ..Clece Syateffs. hie
EerViM
..-PaopN :
AMal
. 321
.....OroPliu
....fmly Tree Makar
... .PrM^Datott
...JMI BNro«d
... EaiPilnh Network TolalAeceu Softtrora-..
.NMCorpwaaan
Utoe OMiepnaM I
. ..ManugwialiK
.MeAlaeAaaocMaa. Nk..
.MkrAopk
....MMiweir.
082
Oemtie . .
... Jtordwara. Software. &atoffla....
OWMapp*
....ilwwoHOita
Mtoroaofl Team Mmoar ..
HKroaoftOAce
...Hicroaon Back once . . ..
....PCCorMacaon — _...
... PCaCorripiBit .
... PCe Condeat
...PCsCompMit .
.. SPSS. Inc ... .
...SiMNi Wao Software, inc
PCs. Peripherals. Software .. .
.... PCs. MoMwoks. Software.. ..
PCs. MoMDooks. Software
PCs. Nolabooks. Software
SPSSrSlorWndows
....AudioVtoion .
.. Sen MkroS)«iems
..-SeriMtora^aiarr tt
... San Mkrotmms
.. SynoMK Corporalioi
TrawNno Software
..LdpLe*torWbidoM«
IIAmriCAl SOFTWARE
Statshcal Softawe .
....SymnNc CorporaPon..
...VtowSomc
IS
Banner Blue Software
.... Central Data Coporaiion . .
. Corel Corporation
. . Corel Corporaiion _
. Corel Corporation __
Corel Corporaiion
.. Corel Corporation
. Coral Corporation . . .
...Corel Corporation . ..
Cord Corporation
.....CoielCorporation
.. Cord Corporation .. .
.. Lotus Pevatopmenl Corporaiion
“tapKbcsInc
« SOFTWARE
PeopN Scheduler
ActiveOffice
OigPius
Serial Port Solutions .
. SymaiHsc Corporation
Dommo
StiigiapiNCS
VvusS^
Ftowciiail .
DokMapeat
MKTOSoft Office
Microsoft Tiam Mwigw.
Microson Oftice
. Microsoft Back Ofta
Chamdeon Hosiknk
. SPSS 7 $ tor Wmtows....
AudioVsian
. Statistical Software
Norton AnttVirus
.2223
... SlNttUe Computor ..
s. Graphc Cards. Speikers.. ..
WORKSTATION St^TWARE
083 Ctnbal Data Copotmon Serial Port SoMions
Leiip Frog labs EvartxSiiroPiamler. EvataxPIOO....
Sun Aberocysioms Workstalioiis
SunMcroejmms Workstahons
060 Sun Ucrps^Mms WorksOMns
For Addlttonpl CatpgoritP pm MARKETPLACE PRODUCT INDEX PAGE 400.
468 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25. 1997
Coming Up
What's in the Next Issue of PC Magazine
The Big Utilities Roundup
Don't miss our annual utilities blowout, featuring all kinds
of software for helping you get more out of your PC. We’ve
rounded up suspects in the usual categories — and found a
bunch of new utilities that will help you make the most of your
Internet time. Although Windows 95 still draws the most at-
tention from utility vendors, we also include tools for a few
other OSs.
Desktop Tools
The standard-bearer utility categories are still popular, but new
product versions are out. We round up antivirus packages, diag-
nostics tools, performance enhancers, program uninstallers, and
file viewers. And we add an extra dollop of miscellaneous tools
for all kinds of desktop checking and tweaking.
The Internet and You
We've got you covered for Internet tools. Paying special atten-
tion to making your searches more effective, we review off-line
utilities, screening packages, and other tools you’ll find useful.
DAVIS
wrwwjPnttcww
ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Chairman and CEO Eric Hippeau
Prasidents Ronni Sonnenberg (U.S. Publications), Jeffrey Ballowe (Interactive Media
and Development Group). J.6. Holston III (Internetionel Media Group), Bob Brown
(Computer Intelligence/Infocorp), William Rosenthal (Training and Support Publish-
ing Group) Senior Vice-President Terri Holbrooke (Marketing) Vice-Presidents Tim-
othy O'Bnen (Chief Financial Officer), J. Malcolm Morris (General Counsel and Sec-
retary), Rayna Brown (Human Resources), Daryl R. Otte (Planning), Roger Herrmann
(Production), Mark Moyer (Controller), Steve Gladyszewski (Information Systems)
Treasurer Thomas L Wright
U.S. Publications Group
Presidents Ronni Sonnenberg (U.S. Publications), Claude Sheer (Business Media
Group). J. Scott Briggs (Consumer Media Group) Senior Vice-Presidents Lawrence
C. Burstein (Consumer Advertising), Baird Davis (Circulation) Executive Vice-
President, Business Media Group Don Byrnes Vice-PresidentsTom McGrade (Busi-
ness Manager), Jim Manning (Marketing Services), Bob Bader (Central Advertising
Sales), Mark Van Name (Product Testing), James F. Ramaley (Circulation Services),
Elda Vale (Research), Herbert Stern (Creative Services). Al DiGuido (Group Publish-
er), Michael J. Miller, Paul Somerson Executive Director, Licensing Gertrud Bor-
chardt Director, ZD Labs Mark Hall Director, Benchmark Operation Bill Catchings
Director. Public Relations Gregory Jarboe Ziff-Davis Media Network: Senior Vice-
President Joe Gillespie Executive Director Jeff Bruce Executive Director, Market-
ing Mike Perkowski Managing Director Rita Burke Directors Ken Beach, Michael
Bird, Melinda Maginn, Scott Murphy, Sue Pasieka Associate Network Directors
Debbie Moss, Juiie Tuttle
Interactive Media and Development Group
President Jeffrey Ballowe Executive Vice-President David Shnaider Executive
Vice-President, Internet Publishing Group Daniel Rosensweig Vice-President Editor-in-
Chief ZD Net Daniel Farber Vice-President General Manager ZD Net James Savage
Vice-President ZDTV Richard Fisher Editorial Director. New Products Bill Machrone
Group Business Manager Jocelyn Grayson
Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
A Softbank Company
PC Mo0azin«, iSSNOMia607.»pubiiWi«jt<Me*aiT»M<*M«piin Juiy«>dAuo<Ml«lM97to>«MvMi' 2if)0«m
PuCilMr»noCe>i>p*nT.On*P»riA»t.N<MV«iA. NV lOOiSMU P*«od<M pMUg* onM M Ve4. NT lWI44P02nnd
« •Mwonji m«hn« oftlCOT POSTMASTER Ad»n» cMnpM to K AMg«-fto, P 0 Pot SeutoM. CO IO»S-Mm
Th* CanMhan GST ropMtTumn numttor • UOAt 6720 RT Pnnwd to to* U S A
Copyrighu..; ,
Editorial Product Index
Reader
Service
Product
Adobe Acrobat 3.0
Company No.
Adobe Systems Inc 417
Page
.... 54
..Zenith Electronics Corp 404
164
Adobe Persuasion 4.0
.Adobe Systems Inc 403
76
..Microplex Systems Ltd 954
NE11
192
192
Axiom
..Apple Computer Inc
164,213
Group 416
73
AxisNeiEye 200
NE11
64
Brother Kitchen Assistant ...
Brother International Corp
162
Partition-lt
..Ouarterdeck Corp 408
66
PartitionMagic 3.02
..PowerOuest Corp 410
66
Cheetah 4LP
189
..Clears Simple Inc 411
73
Cisco Catalyst 5000
.Cisco Systems Inc
218
..Philips Consumer
Corel Video Network
Electronics Co 415
164
Computer
.Corel Corp
157
..Polaroid Corp
60
PhotoPlus
..Epson America Inc 414
60
DiamondWeb TV
.Mitsubishi Consumer
Pilot 5000
..Palm Computing, a division
164
164,213
Oiba Information
PixelinkPX42
..Pixelink Corp
181
Appliances.
Diba Inc
162
Diba Kitchen
Diba Inc
162
..INSD
66
DirecPC
Hughes Network Systems Inc
226
OragonOictatefor
Ricoh RDC-2
..Ricoh Consumer
Windows, Version 2.52
210
Products Group 401
64
DynaMO 230 Portable
.Fujitsu Computer Products
of America Inc 418
52
Samsung Internet TV
..Samsung Electronics
America Inc 409
164
186
181
Seagate Direct
194
186
FujixDS-7
64
164
Snapshot Photo Scanner 1
...Eastman Kodak Co
1 60
Group-Lens Toolkit 1.0
.Net Perceptions
196
SofT rack for Windows NT .
...On Technology Corp 952
:...NE14
SonyMultiScan
Handwriter Manta
.Communication Intelligence
GDM-W900
...Sony Electronics Inc 413
180
Corp
213
Sony WebTV Internet
Headliner
.Lanacom Inc 405
70
Terminal
...Sony Electronics Inc
164
HPOmniGo120
SpeechMagic
...Philips Speech Processing
211
Organizer Plus
.Hewlett-Packard Co
213
Sun JavaStation
...Sun Microsystems
HP 300LX Palmtop PC
167
157
HP 320LX Palmtop PC
.Hewlett-Packard Co
167
Supra NetCommanderlSDN ...Diamond Multimedia
Systems Inc
224
IBM Home Director
-IBM Consumer Division
167
SymplexRO-1 Gold
...Symplex Communications
IBM Network Station
.IBM Network Computer
Corp 951
NE23
Division
150
SYS.230 SCSI Personal
...Olympus Image Systems Inc.. ..419
52
Division
218
Intel Series 100 Flash
Tabriz AgentWare
Memory Miniature Card
.Intel Corp
189
for Windows NT 1 .0
...General Magic Inc
194
Tape Access 2.05
...Seagate Technology Inc
186
Kurzweil Voice for Windows
3ComlmpactlQ
Release 2.5
.Kurzweil Applied
External ISDN Modem
...3Com Corp
224
211
218
Toshiba SD-M1002
...Toshiba America
196
Information Systems Inc
189
MedSpeak/Radiology 1.1 ....
.IBM Corp
210
VoiceType for Windows ....
...IBM Corp
210
Microsoft Picture Itl
.Microsoft Corp
65
MMAC
218
...White Pine Software Inc 953
NE18
WinWhatWhere 97
...WinWhatWhere Corp 402
76
NEC Multisync LCD2000
.NEC Technologies Inc
180
NE — Network Edition
Net.Jet1.11
.PeakTechnologiesInc
70
For information about the Network Edition of PC Magazine, call Circulation at 800-289-0429.
MARCH 25. 1997 PC MAGAZINE 469
Abort, Retry, Fail?
FIFTEEN YEARS ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
By Don Willmott
March 1982
Powerful prophecy: “Perhaps expecting
that IBM won't satisfy the demand of all
who want to buy — or sell — IBM PCs. at
least three companies are said to be
preparing lookalikes.' ”
Pnct/p^rformanc*: “Expand your PC's
memory to 256K with one slot for $1 .095.”
March 19, 1985
Sad lamaiit: “I wish they'd let me have an
AT. but there aren't enough ATs to go
around .” — IBM VP Bob Markell
On Una advancat: “You can now call the
PC Magazine Interactive Reader System.
We're starting small, with just one incom-
ing phone line .” — Bill Machrone
lnthe««
March 15, 1988
Hard-hitting raviaw: “The IBM packing
boxes look good — a tasteful gray-and-
white extension of the highly stylized
machinery within.”
Exciting dtvtIopnMntt “There are 300MB
disks down in the $10,000 to $1 5,000 range
now .” — Bill Gales
26-year-old Bill Gates lays down the law. t%'
Chunky clunky: “The Visual Commu-
ter Computer (weighs) in at 2 1 pounds,
with two floppy disk drives and an LCD
display.”
Bold pradktion: “The days when winters
can hand in stories and articles on paper
may soon be numbered.”
Top five softwaraMllart: Lotus 1-2-32.01.
WordPerfect 4.2. Microsoft Windows 2.03.
Varsity Scripsit. dBASE III Plus.
Duct to dust: “Lotus. . .likes to {X)int
out that if Symphony were a software
publisher's only product, that company
would rank among the top ten firms in
the business.”
Spoody: “Get your hands on an ALR
FlexCache, [a] new 20-MHz 80386-based
screamer that leaves IBM's PS/2 Model 80*
1 1 1 catching its breath.” Price: $7,495.
Right, right, wrong: “Floppy disks are
getting smaller — from 8-inch to 5.25-
inch to 3.5-inch and probably down to
2.5-inch . ” — John C. Dvorak
Roger Staubadi and Terry Bradshaw ihill for ^counting software. TouchdownI
March 12, 1991
Still woitHig: “In time, many Windows
applications will add the ability to accept
handwriting directly, and eventually
programs will be designed to make the
most of the pen.”
Right at tho timo: “Settling on the right
microprocessor is obviously a key issue
here My recommendation has been to
buy 386SXs .” — Jim Seymour
March 15,1994
Lingoring doath: “The people have
spoken. They just don't want OS/2 on
their desktops. ” — Bill Machrone
And wo lovod thorn: “By the middle of
1991. you should see notebook computers
with 4()MB hard disks, and in the second
half, you should start to see notebooks
based on Intel's low-power 386SL inte-
grated chipset.”
^AUgitfirw'stop'JcIlmchirtWeddn’tunderstand It either Cl"
Chip wart forovor: “If Apple can make the
[PowerPC] chip emulate the Motorola
68000. then others can make it emulate the
Pentium. When that happens, look for a
lawsuit .” — John C. Dvorak
The Intarwhat? “Although software
designed for searching the Internet has
become easier to use and more sophisti-
cated recently, it still has a long way to go.”
Thrta yaart later, still testing: “Hoping to
leverage the 60 million cable-subscribing
households across the country, online
services have started to field-test proto-
type cable mtxiems.”
Wait and see: “How well the Internet
adapts to this explosion of interest will
likely determine if it can indeed act as an
on-ramp to the national data highway.”
Betcha he'sa lot less psyched About Ambn tixby. Cl"
If your entry is used, we'll send you $50 and a PC Magazine T-shirt. Send your entries
to Abort. Retry, Fail?, PC Magazine, One Park Ave.. New York. NY 10016-5802 or,
via e-mail (text items only), to don_willmott@zd.com.
470 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 25, 1997
Copyrightod fti-T
»-Si fi?-; n ? i-tss l?t If??
CAN YOU REALLY AFFORD TO
BUY THE #2 NOTEBOOK?
ANNUAL GUIDE TO COMPUTERS
What's wrong with this picture? The notebook that gives you
the most performance, usability and features costs half the price
of notebooks that give you less. (Notebooks, by the way, that you
probably thought gave you more,) And remember, you have this
information on the very best authority. Business Week, the business
publication, in their Second Annual Computer Buying Guide cited
the Dell Latitude LM P133ST as "the top ranked machine in the
tests" and the notebook they'd most like to travel with. So if you're
shopping for a notebook, buy the best. After all, you can afford it.
DELL* LATITUDE' LM P133ST
133MHz PENTIUM* PROCESSOR
• 12T SVGA Active Matrix Color Display
• 16MB RAM/1.3GB Hard Drive
• 256KB L2 Cache
• Options Bay accepts 6X CD-ROM. 3,5" Floppy Drive
(both included) or Optional 2nd Li-Ion Battery
• PCI Bus with 128-bit Graphics Accelerator
• Integrated I6*bil Stereo Sound
• Smart Lithium Ion Battery
• IrOA 1.0 Standard Compliant
• Touchpad
• Under 7 Pounds'
• Extendable 1 Year Warranty'
• Upgrade to 40MB RAM. add $299.
• Upgrade to a 2. J6B Hard Drive, add $300.
$2999
Business Lease*^: $1 1 1/Mo.
Order Code #800051
Pentium
D<»LL
TO ORDER
800 - 765-6270
http://www.dell.com/buvdell
Mon-Fri 7am-9pm CT • Sat 10am-6pm CT
Sun 12pm'5pm In Canada! call 800-233-0702
I Keycode #04427 |
Copyrighted material
I i-!
' I
ikhnoogy.
* PC MAGAZINE BEST PENTIUM PC OF ISM • XPS IIm
* PC COMPUTING MVP WOAKHORSE DESKTOP - XPS PZflOi
* PC MAGAZINE EDITORS CHOICE AWARD - XPS PioZOOa
* PC MAGAZINE EDITORS CHOICE AWARD ■ XPS PZOOt
* 4-tiM PC WORLD POWER DESKTOP BEST BUY XPS PZOOt
* S-tiiM WINDOWS MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED UST • XPS ProZOOi
* PC COMPUTING BEST AWARD • XPS PrtZOO
* COMPUTER SHOPPER TOP 100 AWARD XPS PIOCs
* S-liiM PC WORLD POWER DESKTOP BEST BUY • XPS ProZOlii
* WINDOWS MAGAZINE WIN100 SO HARDWARE AWARDS - XPS IIm
* PC WORLD HOME DESKTOP BEST BUY • PZOOv
* t-liiM WINDOWS MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED UH - XPS PISOs
* PC COMPUTING 4 STAR AWARD XPS PZOOt
* PC WORLD BUOGn DESKTOP BEST BUY • PZOOv
* ll tiM WINDOWS MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED UST - PlOOl
* Z-tiM PC COMPUTING 4 STAR AWARD XPS PfoZOOn
* Z-tiM WINDOWS MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED UST - PZOOv
* PC WORLD BUDGET DESKTOP BEST BUY - P133v
* WMOOWS MAGAZINE WW100 M HARDWARE AWARDS DIMENSION liM
* PC MAGAZINE EDITORS' CHOICE AWARD XPS P133c
* PC COMPUTING BEST AWARD XPS PIOOc
* S-tiM PC WORLD BUDGET DESKTOP BEST BUY - PTSt
* 0-tiM PC WORLD POWER DESKTOP BEST BUY XPS P133c
* Z-tiM WINDOWS MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED UST - XPS PrtZOO
* PC WORLD BUDGET DESKTOP BEST BUY - PlOOl
* S-tiM PC COMPUTING 4 STAR AWARD - XPS PIOOc
* PC WORLD HOME DESKTOP BEST BUY • PIDOl
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* 5-tei PC WORLD BUDGH DESKTOP BEST BUY - XPS PIZOc
* PC COMPUTING 4 STAR AWARD PlOOl
* PC WORLD POWER DESKTOP BEST BUY XPS PSOc
* S-dM WINDOWS MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED UST XPS PIOOc
* PC WORLD BUOGn DESKTOP BEST BUY ■ XPS PSOc
* PC WORLD POWER DESKTOP BEST BUY - XPS PIOOc
* PIUS MORE THAT WE COULDN'T FIT HERE
NEW DELL DIMENSION “ XPS M200s
200MHz PENTIUM* PROCESSOR WITH MMX’“ TECHNOLOGY
• Mini Tower Model
• 32MB SDRAM Memory
• 512KB Single Bank Pipeline Burst Cache
• 3.2GB Hard Drive [12ms]
• A/fl/YSOOHS Trinitron' Monitor(13,7" v.i.s
• Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM
Video Card
• 12X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
• Integrated Sound Blaster 16 Sound
• Altec ACS-290 Speakers with Subwoofer
• MS* Office Professional with
Bookshelf for Windows' 95
MS Office 97. Professional or Small
Business Edition Upgrade Coupon'
• FREE Norton/Visio Express Software Suite'
• Microsoft* Windows 95/30 Days Free
Support/MS Mouse
• 3 Year Limited Warranty' with 1 Year
On-site’ Service
• Upgradetoa 17LSMonitor(]5.7"v.i.s.}.add$J^
$2499
Business Lease" $92/Mo
Order Code #500210
PC LINE OF 1996.
ISN'T THAT A WHOLE NEW AW
When it comes to the awards the Dell Dimension line has won in 1996, they truly are too numerous to mention here. Because the fact is,
Dell Dimension has won awards for everything from technical excellence to sheer performance to best value. Awards that come from the
most widely read and consulted authorities in the industry- PC Magaz/oe, PC World, PC Computing, Windows Magazine and Computer
Shopper. In total, the Dimension line has won 31% more of these awards than any other desktop PC, Which means we aren't just handing
you a line when we say that when it comes to Dell Dimension, no other PC comes close.
Pentium
D64.L
TO ORDER
800 - 822-3781
http://www.dell.com/buydell
Mon-Ffi 7am-9pm CT • Sat 10am-6pm CT
Sun 12pm-5pm in Canada.'call 800-233-0702
I Keycode <044261
Copyrighted malarial
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11